Why did Linnaeus call these beans vulgar?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

September 21, 2001

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Linnaeus preferred to name things taking the words from past civilizations. Phaseolus vulgaris, he named from phaselos, the Greek word for a type of bean and vulgaris, a Latin word meaning commonplace or ordinary. But other legumes grew in the Old World which were reliable sources of nutrition. It was these legumes that got the name, bean, and handed it down to so many other related species.

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Romans called beans, faba, which in Old Prussian became babo. The Old Slavs knew a good thing and called them bobu. The Old Norse ate them too and called them, baun. The Old High German name was bona which became bohne. The Old Frisians in the Netherlands called these seeds bane. From there the word entered into Old English, bean, which in Middle English was bene. The English (and Americans) went back to bean.

As people passed these seeds around and selected varieties to suit their needs, taxonomy of the legumes became a nightmare. So when a new bean with many varieties came to Europe, Linnaeus may have simply despaired and called them common beans.

To view photographs of an English variety of bean, click on the link:

http://www.benovsky.com/bean/

Follow web site instructions and click on individual images to enlarge the photographs.

killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~

Suggested Reading:

What twelve plants supply most of the food...? Plants that Changed History - Aug 21, 2001
What lady bugs the common bean? Renfield's Garden - September 19, 2001
What is a fava bean? Weird Plants - September 4, 2003
How did we get so many varieties from the common bean? Weird Plants - September 20, 2001
How is a toxin found in the kidney bean useful? Herbal Folklore - September 17, 2001

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