Runner bean
A red-flowered climbing garden bean; its long summer flowering draws bumblebees and honey bees, which mostly take nectar from robbed flowers.
- Nectar
- Medium
- Pollen
- Low
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 2-4 m
- Life cycle
- Annual
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The runner bean is a bean of Central American origin with bright red or white flowers that reaches 3-4 m on poles. The flower is built for large bumblebees; honey bees often take nectar through holes that bumblebees bite in the base of the flower. It is therefore a useful source at garden scale but a limited one at field scale.
Flowering
It produces new racemes continuously from late June until the first frost. It flowers more freely in cool, humid summers; on very hot days flower drop increases.
Honey and pollen
No honey is produced under its own name; it makes a small contribution to summer honeys from gardens and around settlements. Its pollen contribution is small.
Note for the beekeeper
Although it has a perennial root, it is grown as an annual in gardens. In some parts of Turkey the name 'çalı fasulyesi' (bush bean) is wrongly given to this species too; the bush bean is in fact the dwarf form of Phaseolus vulgaris.