OK, so it seems that my assumption that
Feijao Lindinho might be the ancestor of Jacob's Cattle beans was completely the wrong way around. It's far more likely that they originated over the
pond in the US and worked their way over to Portugal.
I've been trying to untangle some of the bean-family-tree.
This is the only reasonably easy to understand diagram I managed to find, though it's not exactly comprehensive.
I found that
here.
Phaseolus species are all from central and South America
Phaseolus vulgaris - french bean, common bean, kidney bean, flagelot, haricot vetts
Phaseolus coccineus - runner bean, scarlet runner, haricot's d'espagne
Phaseolus lunatus - lima bean, madagascar bean, butter bean
Phaseolus acutifolius - tepary bean
Arachis hypogaea - peanut, monkey nut, from America
Pisum sativum -
pea, from Europe and Near East
Vicia faba - broad bean, fava, from the Mediterranean
Lens culinaris - lentil, from the Mediterranean
Vigna unguiculata - cowpea, asparagus bean, black eyed pea from Ethiopia
Vigna radiata - mung bean, green gram
Vigna angularis - adzuki bean
Cicer arietinum - Indian gram, garbanzo bean, chick-pea from Ethiopia
Glycine max - soybean, from China
There seem to be a few others too, but these are the common ones.
The common names are, I suspect, going to get confusing, but I'll de-tangle as best I can. I'm using a copy of
Roger Philips book about Vegetables as my guide as he does seem to attempt to be fairly complete and accurate, unlike most
books which tend to describe vegetables by their use rather than their families.
I'm rather fascinated by the tepary bean - I'd never really encountered it before and it seems like it might be a good sort to grow here. I intend to photograph, and possibly sample, all the beans I can find in the next market, and attempt to identify which species they all are.
Watch this space!
