Phaseolus (bean, wild bean)[2] is a genus of herbaceous to woody annual and perennial vines in the family Fabaceae containing about 70 plant species, all native to the Americas, primarily Mesoamerica.

[5][6] Most prominent among these is the common bean, P. vulgaris, which today is cultivated worldwide in tropical, semitropical, and temperate climates.

Phaseolus species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including common swift, garden dart, ghost moth Hypercompe albicornis, H. icasia and the nutmeg.

[8][9] The Ancient Greeks probably referred to any bean in a pod as phasēlos,[10] which at the time, in Europe, were only of Asian origin.

For example, older literature refers to the mung bean as Phaseolus aureus, whereas more modern sources classify it as Vigna radiata.