Phaseolus vulgaris
Green beans are crisp, tender pods, including green and yellow wax types. They are an easy Northeast garden crop and a familiar summer preserve.1
Further notes
Green snap beans, wax beans, pole beans, shell beans, and dry beans are all forms of the same species, Phaseolus vulgaris; the difference is largely the stage and part harvested.2
The string in older “string beans” is a tough fiber running along the pod seam. Modern stringless cultivars were selected to reduce it. A snap bean is harvested before the seeds and pod wall fully mature; leave the same kind of plant longer and the pod eventually becomes papery around dry beans.2
Footnotes
-
University of Maine Cooperative Extension, “Food & Nutrition for the Home Gardener,” accessed July 17, 2026. ↩
-
University of Maine Cooperative Extension, “Vegetable Varieties for Maine Gardens,” accessed July 17, 2026. ↩ ↩2