Description

Bean ‘Highworth’ is an Indian heirloom and a vigorous, creeping short-lived perennial (grown as an annual), which can be grown on a support or used as ground cover. It will quickly cover a trellis and makes a great living screen. The young pods can be cooked and eaten. DO NOT EAT raw beans OR older pods. The leaves can be cooked as spinach. The purple flowers can be eaten fresh. It is better not to eat the black seeds as they are highly toxic, even when cooked, unless prepared properly.
The fragrant purple flowers are attractive to butterflies and other beneficial insects. Lablab bean plants can be grown as a green manure crop or a cover crop for a garden being rested.
Highworth beans are a species of Lablab purpureus, also known as hyacinth beans. If growing for seed collection, check the Latin name of the beans you are about to plant: all varieties of Lablab purpureus have the potential to cross-pollinate with each other. They will, however, not cross-pollinate with green (string) beans or kidney beans (both Phaseolus vulgaris), runner beans, snake beans, soybeans, or adzuki beans, so feel free to grow these other types of beans near your lablab bean of choice.