Broad Bean (Vicia faba)
Broad beans are an annual species of vetch grown for its edible seeds. The flowers are mostly white with a black spot. The plants grow to around one meter. When the seed pods are dry they turn black or grey.
The seeds can be eaten fresh green boiled as a vegetable, or dried, soaked and boiled.
Broad beans are hardy and survive frost, so they can be sown early in spring.
Small seeded varieties are called field beans and are often grown for fodder.
The wild ancestor of broad beans and field beans is extinct. Broad beans were one of the first crops to be grown 10000 years ago in the Levant together with wheat, barley, peas and lentils.
The broad bean weevil lays its eggs on the pods and the larvae dig holes in the beans. The photo shows a weevil that will soon come out from its hole..