Dragon Tongue Beans

Dragon Tongue Beans are a beautiful heirloom variety of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), originally from Mexico, and now cultivated in many other countries. Like the rest of the species, the pods are edible, and the beans may be harvested when fresh, or left on the plant to dry.  In the photo at the top of this post, my plants are at the blooming and early pod stage, showing a delicate and pretty pinkish bloom, and a green slim pod growing after a flower has browned.  In the next stage, the pods will grow longer and wider, developing pink stripes over a green background and are crisp and edible. To harvest as fresh shelling beans, the best time is when the pod stripes turn dark.  Finally, if the pods are left to brown and dry on the plant, the beans are good for storage and seed for the next crop. Dragon tongue beans are mottled, and similar to pinto and Roma beans, but each variety has a different flavour profile.

The plant is classified as a bush bean, meaning that it branches and its growth restrained to around 90 cm (3 ft) in height. I got a few seeds from one of my daughters, and it must be a sub-variety of some kind, because they sprouted and started growing as vines, and are still growing tall in that fashion, now close to 2 m (6.5 ft, photo below, left), and the vines are wrapping around wooden poles like climbing beans (photo below, right):

Many young pods are growing, so I will update about this interesting crop and my particular batch at harvest time.

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