Runner bean — 1 of 4 · Photo: “Haricot d'Espagne - Phaseolus coccineus - 2 - par Mickael Schauli” by Mickaël Schauli, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 Resized by Vanagrha; shared under the same licence.

Runner bean, photo 2 — 2 of 4 · Photo: Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, iNaturalist, CC BY

Runner bean

Phaseolus coccineus L.

light: Full sun
water: Medium
tall: 3.0 m
wide: 1.2 m

Fabaceae

Also called Scarlet runner bean, Scarlet runner

Formerly Lipusa formosa, Phaseolus bicolor, Phaseolus formosus, Phaseolus griseus, and 7 more

When it flowers

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Flowers April to November in the tropics.

Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.

PetsNo pet-safety information yet

PeopleNC State Extension lists it as mildly poisonous (seeds) (25 Oct 2026)

If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.

Something wrong with it?

About it

Grows as: Climbing annual or perennialKew's checklist, not yet checked
Climate: Seasonally dry tropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
Wild in: Mexico to NicaraguaKew's checklist, not yet checked
Light: Full sun (6 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
Height: 2.4 m to 3.7 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
Spread: 91 cm to 1.5 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
Water: Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
Flowers: White, orange, redRead from NC State Extension, one source

Not known yet: coldest it survives, heat, hottest it survives.

Grow it with

Suggested by a rule, not by a gardener: same climate (kew), flowering when this plant does not (inaturalist), and a different shape.

In other languages (12)

Spanish: Ayocote
root: bénju, cimatl, clankastapu
Czech: fazol šarlatový
German: Feuerbohne
Slovak: fazuľa šarlátová, Fazuľa
Japanese: シロバナササゲ
Russian: Фасоль огненно-красная, Фасоль многоцветковая
Swedish: rosenböna, Rosenböna
Chinese (China): 荷包豆
Dutch: Pronkboon
Korean: 붉은강낭콩
Portuguese: feijoca, feijão-dos-sete-anos

Where this comes from

iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 4.0
iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
3D model: Phaseolus coccineus (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own

A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.