Species
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Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet

Hyacinth Bean, Hyacinth bean, Lablab-bean, Bonavist bean, Dolichos bean, Seim bean, Lablab bean, Egyptian bean, Egyptian kidney bean, Indian bean, Bataw, Australian pea, Sweet hyacinth bean, Antaque, Banner Bean, Hyacinthbean, antaque

Climate known 88 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Lablab purpureus is a species of bean in the family Fabaceae. It is native to sub-Saharan Africa and it is cultivated throughout the tropics for food. English language common names include hyacinth bean, lablab-bean bonavist bean/pea, dolichos bean, seim or sem bean, lablab bean, Egyptian kidney bean, Indian bean, bataw and Australian pea. Lablab is a monotypic genus.

Text from Wikipedia, “Lablab”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Lablab

Lablab purpureus is a species of bean in the family Fabaceae. It is native to sub-Saharan Africa and it is cultivated throughout the tropics for food. English language common names include hyacinth bean, lablab-bean bonavist bean/pea, dolichos bean, seim or sem bean, lablab bean, Egyptian kidney bean, Indian bean, bataw and Australian pea. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Lablab”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(L.) Sweet
Native to
Cape Verde, Benin, Gambia, The +31
Wild records
415 in range· 356 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Mar, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
811mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 104 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–38DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, October to April at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.2 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 811 mm a year, wettest December at 104 mm, driest June at 34 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 11.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Dolichos benghalensis Jacq.; Dolichos cultratus Thunb.; Dolichos purpureus L.; Lablab niger subsp. bengalensis (Jacq.) Verdc.; Lablab nigra Medik.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, October to April at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.2 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (610 mm of 811 mm) falls in October to April. The temperature curve is flat, 3.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 811 mm a year, wettest December at 104 mm, driest June at 34 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

811 mm a year at the habitat, 610 mm of it October to April. Wettest month December at 104 mm, driest June at 34 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 647 mm to 1787 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 11.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 11.0 °C, the absolute minimum 7.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 16.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 5.2 °C to 24.6 °C), warmest day 27.6 °C in March (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 24 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Mar; mean night from 16 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Apr. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 811 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 375 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 7.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°50°41.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)7.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 27–38RH 57–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 375 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 22–3127 / 23–3228 / 23–3427 / 22–3726 / 20–3725 / 18–3424 / 18–3125 / 20–3126 / 22–3227 / 22–3227 / 22–3226 / 23–31
Night °C17 / 12–2418 / 13–2418 / 13–2419 / 12–2517 / 8–2616 / 6–2616 / 5–2516 / 7–2417 / 9–2418 / 11–2217 / 12–2317 / 12–24
Rain mm95 / 4–29086 / 4–26193 / 11–19060 / 16–17735 / 8–19734 / 3–22634 / 3–34844 / 3–30654 / 6–23276 / 20–17696 / 11–160104 / 7–224
DLI37 / 31–4338 / 33–4237 / 32–4335 / 27–4532 / 24–4430 / 22–3627 / 22–3330 / 24–3635 / 29–4136 / 31–4436 / 29–4437 / 28–43
RH %61 / 48–6761 / 46–6761 / 46–6660 / 45–6658 / 47–6657 / 50–6759 / 50–6859 / 49–6960 / 49–6760 / 50–6560 / 50–6561 / 49–66

Each figure is the median across the 375 grid cells holding the 411 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2108:4275 (-15.425, 33.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 375 distinct grid cells holding the 411 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2108:4275 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -15.50_33.750, lapse-corrected -70 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 492 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCape Verde, Benin, Gambia, The, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gabon, Rwanda, Zaïre, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Madagascar, India· introduced: Italy, Sicilia, Ukraine, Tunisia, Canary Is., Madeira, Mali, Niger, Gulf of Guinea Is., Chad, Somalia, Ascension, Mauritius, Réunion, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Gulf States, Yemen, China South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central, China Southeast, Korea, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Laccadive Is., Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Sumatera, Christmas I., New Guinea, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, Fiji, Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Easter Is., Marquesas, Pitcairn Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Hawaii, Mexico Southwest, Guatemala, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Uruguay
Kew's description“scrambling annual or perennial” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-25.762, 30.811 · in the densest population, 66 records (16% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 415 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 356 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 1025 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 4 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 415 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Lablab purpureusLablab purpureusLablab purpureusLablab purpureusLablab purpureusLablab purpureusLablab purpureusLablab purpureus

Photographs: (c) Meehir Pawar, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Whitney Mattila, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) vrxz, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Lablab purpureus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Genetic improvement of vegetable crops
G. Kalloo, B. O. Bergh (1993)
The draft genomes of five agriculturally important African orphan crops
Yue Li Chang, Huan Liu, Min Liu, Xuezhu Liao (2018) · GigaScience
Lablab purpureus—A Crop Lost for Africa?
Brigitte L. Maass, M. R. Knox, S. C. Venkatesha, Tefera Tolera Angessa (2010) · Tropical Plant Biology
Nodulation of Cyclopia spp. (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae) by Burkholderia tuberum
Geoffrey N. Elliott, Wei‐Min Chen, Cyril Bontemps, Jui-Hsing Chou (2007) · Annals of Botany
Three Sequenced Legume Genomes and Many Crop Species: Rich Opportunities for Translational Genomics
Steven B. Cannon, Gregory D. May, Scott A. Jackson (2009) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Crops, cattle and commensals across the Indian Ocean
Dorian Q. Fuller, Nicole Boivin (2009) · Études Océan Indien
Functional Analysis of NopM, a Novel E3 Ubiquitin Ligase (NEL) Domain Effector of Rhizobium sp. Strain NGR234
Dawei Xin, Sha Liao, Zhi‐Ping Xie, Dagmar R. Hann (2012) · PLoS Pathogens
Identification and origin of races of Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola from Africa and other bean growing areas
John D. Taylor, D. Teverson, D. J. Allen, M. A. Pastor‐Corrales (1996) · Plant Pathology
Differential Nodulation Tolerance to Nitrate Among Legume Species
J. E. Harper, A. H. Gibson (1984) · Crop Science
Changes in Nonnutritional Factors and Antioxidant Activity during Germination of Nonconventional Legumes
Yolanda Aguilera, María F. Díaz, Tania Jiménez, Vanesa Benítez (2013) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 150 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.