Rice bean facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Rice bean
Harvested Vigna umbellata beans
Scientific classification
Genus:	Vigna
Species:	umbellata

The Vigna umbellata, also known as ricebean, is a type of plant that grows like a vine. It's an annual plant, meaning it lives for one growing season. This plant has yellow flowers and produces small, edible beans. Even though it's not very well-known or studied, ricebean is a useful crop.

People often grow ricebean alongside other crops like maize (corn), sorghum, or cowpea. It can also be grown by itself in certain areas. Ricebean is mostly grown for its dried beans, but it's also used as food for animals, to make the soil healthier (called green manure), and sometimes as a vegetable. It grows best in warm places, especially across Indo-China and parts of southern China, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Ricebean can grow in many different types of soil. It grows quickly and can produce a lot of healthy food for animals and good quality beans for people.

What is Ricebean?

Ricebean is a warm-season plant that grows like a vine. It produces small, tasty beans. This plant is not as famous as some other beans, but it's very useful! It can be grown with other crops like corn or sorghum. Ricebean is great because it helps make the soil better and can feed both people and animals.

How Ricebean is Related to Other Plants

Scientists group plants together based on how they are related. Ricebean belongs to a group of plants called Vigna. This group includes other well-known beans like mung bean (green gram), black gram, and adzuki bean. All these plants are related and have a similar number of chromosomes (tiny parts inside cells). Scientists have even mixed ricebean with black gram to create new, improved types of mung beans!

Where Ricebean Comes From and Where it Grows

Ricebean is believed to have first been grown in the area of Indo-China. This plant is very adaptable, meaning it can grow in many different environments. You can find it in humid tropical areas, sub-tropical regions, and even in sub-temperate climates. Its wild relatives grow from Southern China all the way through Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and India. This shows how tough and versatile ricebean is!

How Ricebean Grows and What it Needs

Ricebean can grow in places that get a good amount of rain, usually between 1000 and 1500 millimeters. It's a strong plant that can handle different soil types. It's also pretty good at resisting pests and diseases. Some types of ricebean can be ready to harvest in just 60 days! Even though it likes humid conditions, it can also survive drought (very dry periods) and high temperatures. It can even handle some waterlogging (too much water in the soil) and acidic soils.

One challenge with ricebean is that its pods can break open easily, scattering the seeds. This is called "shattering." This can be a bigger problem when the weather changes often between wet and dry.

In places like Nepal and parts of India, farmers grow ricebean on small areas. They often grow it in hilly regions, on land that isn't irrigated, or on slopes. It's usually grown between 700 and 1300 meters above sea level, but can be found even higher or lower in home gardens. In Nepal, most of the ricebean grown is used as food for people.

Farmers often plant ricebean with corn. They might scatter the ricebean seeds when they plant the corn or later when the corn is growing.

Ricebean is very helpful for the soil because it can fix nitrogen. This means it takes nitrogen from the air and puts it into the soil, which acts like a natural fertilizer. This helps other plants grow better, especially corn. It also helps prevent soil erosion, which is when soil is washed away by rain or wind.

Even though ricebean is so useful, its production is decreasing in some areas. This is because farmers are using new types of corn and chemical fertilizers. Also, other beans like soybeans and common beans are becoming more popular. Scientists haven't done much work to create new, better types of ricebean, so farmers mostly grow older varieties that don't produce as much.

What Ricebean Looks Like

Wild ricebean plants usually have thin stems and many branches. They have small leaves and grow by twining around other plants. They are also sensitive to how much daylight there is, which affects when they flower. The seeds can be different colors, but they are often red or yellow. In Chinese, the red type is called "赤小豆" (chì xiǎo dòu), which means 'red small bean'. It's even used in Traditional Chinese medicine.

How Ricebean Helps Us Stay Healthy

Ricebean is good for people, animals, and even the soil! All types of ricebean are good sources of protein, important amino acids (building blocks of protein), healthy fats, and minerals. When dried, the beans are a great addition to meals that are mostly made of cereals.

Ricebean for People

People often cook ricebean as a dal, which is a thick soup or stew. You can soak the beans overnight and then boil them with spices, or cook them in a pressure cooker. Besides soups, ricebean can be used in many other dishes. It can be cooked whole, roasted, ground into flour, or used to make fried snacks.

The amount of protein in raw ricebean is a bit lower than in some other beans, but it still has a good amount. What's great about ricebean is that its amino acids are well-balanced, which is important for human health.

Like other beans, ricebean contains some substances called antinutrients. These can make it harder for your body to absorb certain micronutrients like iron and zinc. However, the amount of these substances in ricebean seems to be low.

Some beans can cause flatulence (gas). Studies have shown that ricebean causes less gas compared to many other common beans. Cooking methods like soaking, boiling, or sprouting can help reduce the gas-producing substances even more.

Ricebean for Animals

Ricebean is a very good food for animals. It's known to help increase milk production in livestock like cows.

Ricebean in Traditional Medicine

The red type of ricebean is used in traditional Chinese medicine. It's sometimes combined with another herb called Angelica sinensis.

Ricebean in Culture

In South Asia, people often think of foods as "hot," "cold," or "neutral." This idea affects what people eat, especially during different seasons or when they are sick. For example, some people believe ricebean is a "cold" food that helps cool you down in the summer. But in other places, it's considered "hot" and might not be eaten by older or sick people during hot weather because it's thought to be harder to digest.

Even though some people say ricebean can cause a little stomach upset, others say it's actually easier to digest than many other beans. Because of this, it's sometimes given to people who have trouble digesting food.

Ricebean doesn't usually have a special role in ceremonies, unlike black gram, which is used for important events by some groups. Black gram is also considered tastier and sells for a higher price, so farmers might choose to grow it instead of ricebean.

However, ricebean is one of nine beans used to make a special mixed bean sprout soup called Quantee (or kwati). This soup is eaten during the Janai Purnima festival, which marks the end of the monsoon season. People believe quantee makes them strong and cleans their stomachs. It's also said to help kill certain types of mosquitoes!

In some parts of Nepal, ricebean is seen as "poor man's food," but it's not looked down upon. In the Dang district, Tharu people especially enjoy ricebean and have their own version of quantee that uses ten different beans. People also believe that ricebean makes you strong, so it's often served to laborers or eaten by people doing hard work.

The Future of Ricebean

Not much has been done yet to fully use ricebean's potential. There are some things that scientists could improve. Many types of ricebean are sensitive to daylight, which means they might flower late and grow too much vine in some areas. Their vine-like growth makes them great for growing with corn or sorghum, as they can climb for support. However, this also makes them harder to harvest. Also, many types of ricebean lose their seeds easily (shattering) and have very hard seeds.

Even though there hasn't been a lot of modern breeding work on ricebean, it has been studied as a green manure crop in Nepal. These studies showed that it's one of the best plants for this purpose! It grows a lot of plant material quickly, is easy to mix into the soil, and breaks down fast, making the soil healthier.

Images for kids

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  Harvested Vigna umbellata beans