Mung Bean

Mung bean is an annual herbaceous plant. The root system is powerful, consists of a developed tap root with many lateral branches. The stem is erect, slightly branched, stiff-haired, ribbed, 20-150 cm high (in Russia, varieties 30-50 cm high are cultivated). The mung bean stem is herbaceous, sometimes lignified at the base, green, gray-green, maybe with anthocyanin coloration. Stipules glabrous, ovate or broadly ovate, 10 to 18 mm long, unpaired leaf almost triangular. The leaves are large, the first ones are simple, the subsequent ones are trifoliate, pubescent, yellowish-green or dark green in color. The flowers are bisexual, large, golden, yellow, yellow-green in color. The corolla consists of five petals of a moth-like structure, the flowers are collected in inflorescences of 2-12 flowers each, the peduncles are short, located in the axils of the leaves. The fruit is thin, cylindrical beans with appressed pubescence, without a beak at the end, 6-18 cm long, with 6-15 seeds. Seeds are small, barrel-shaped, tuberculate, smooth, dull, shiny, 3-6 mm long. The color of the seeds is usually dark green, olive or yellow, less often there are varieties with brown, black or dark green with black speckles. Flowering begins from the lower branches. Mung beans bloom in July-August, the seeds ripen in August-September (vegetation period is 80-100 days; in late-ripening varieties, the ripening period is delayed until October). The fruit is a multi-seeded, pubescent, narrow bean, 5-20 cm long, cylindrical, brown (light brown) or black in color. The seeds are smooth, with a glossy sheen of the shell, oval in shape, small, yellow, brown or green in color (sometimes speckled). Mung beans are usually harvested when the beans begin to darken. They are usually harvested by hand at weekly intervals. In newer cultivars, in which the plants ripen evenly, all plants are harvested and dried in the sun before threshing. After the beans have dried, the seeds are removed by beating or trampling.