Lablab purpureus(L.) Sweet

Hyacinth beanhyacinthbean

WFO wfo-0000181603 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Lablab purpureus, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. a Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-04-21 / obs. 189565153
Lablab purpureus, photographed by Ruth Gutiérrez Oliveros
fig. b Ruth Gutiérrez Oliveros, CC0 1.0 / obs. 147175399
Lablab purpureus, photographed by 葉子
fig. c 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 125197012
Lablab purpureus, photographed by chiuluan
fig. d chiuluan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115061267
Lablab purpureus, photographed by Takaaki Hattori
fig. e Takaaki Hattori, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112765925
Lablab purpureus, photographed by Brian Oakes Haiti Hunter
fig. f Brian Oakes Haiti Hunter, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112022007
Lablab purpureus, photographed by 葉子
fig. g 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 111409870
Lablab purpureus, photographed by 葉子
fig. h 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 108606431

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 34 botanical countries

Regions where Lablab purpureus is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, India AngolaBeninBotswanaCameroonCape ProvincesCentral African RepublicDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateGabonGambiaGhanaIvory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMalawiMozambiqueNamibiaNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSenegalSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabweIndia Cape Verde
Native distribution of Lablab purpureus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Botswana BOT
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Cape Verde CVI
Central African Republic CAF
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Gabon GAB
Gambia GAM
Ghana GHA
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 83 in flower of 99 examined

Peak flowering in Aug. Each bar is the share of Lablab purpureus observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 83 of 99 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 3 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 56 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Dolichos albus Lour.
  • Dolichos amoenus Salisb.
  • Dolichos bengalensis Jacq.
  • Dolichos boivini Drake
  • Dolichos boivinii Drake
  • Dolichos crenatifructus Steud. ex A.Rich.
  • Dolichos cultratus Forssk.
  • Dolichos cultratus Thunb.
  • Dolichos ensiformis Thunb.
  • Dolichos festivus Wall.
  • Dolichos lablab L.
  • Dolichos lablab f. lobata Vatke
  • Dolichos lablab subsp. bengalensis (Jacq.) Rivals
  • Dolichos lablab var. albiflorus (DC.) Millsp.
  • Dolichos lablab var. crenatifructus Steud. ex Rivals
  • Dolichos lablab var. dolichocarpa Hayata
  • Dolichos lablab var. rhomboideus Schinz
  • Dolichos lablab var. uncinatus Chiov.
  • Dolichos martinicensis Jacq. ex Medik.
  • Dolichos nervosus Schumach. & Thonn.
  • Dolichos pearsonii Hutch.
  • Dolichos purpureus L.
  • Dolichos racemosus Roxb. ex Steud.
  • Dolichos sanguineus Jacq.

and 32 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.