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Vigna radiata; photograph (c) swanand kesari, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) swanand kesari, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-09-17

Vigna radiata (L.) R.Wilczek

Mung bean; Celera-bean; Green Gam; Green gram

Fabaceae · Taiwan, Assam +14

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Vigna radiata, photograph (c) Bharat Godambe, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vigna radiata, photograph (c) swanand kesari, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vigna radiata, photograph (c) swanand kesari, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vigna radiata, photograph (c) renjus box, some rights reserved (CC BY)Vigna radiata, photograph (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Vigna radiata, photograph (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 30 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
10.6°C
Record low 6.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
35°C
Nov at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,171mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–45DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to September (December to March at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

The mung bean or green gram (Vigna radiata) is a plant species in the legume family. It is mainly cultivated in East, Southeast, and in South Asia and used as an ingredient in both savoury and sweet dishes.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Mung bean", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Vigna

Vigna is a genus of plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution. It includes some well-known cultivated species, including many types of beans. Some members of the genus were previously classified in Phaseolus. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Vigna", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (812 mm of 999 mm) falls in December to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.9 °C against a yearly mean of 26.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Rain

999 mm in the median year at the habitat, 812 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 255 mm, driest month August at 2 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 659 mm to 1,799 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,171 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 999 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 45 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 10.6 °C, the absolute minimum 6.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.7 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 12.0 °C to 22.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 34.6 °C in November (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 50 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -34 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Vigna radiata through the yearWarmest month November, mean daily high 35 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 16.7 °C; 999 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°43.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER6.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 31–45RH 50–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 291 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C32 / 28–3531 / 28–3432 / 28–3432 / 26–3531 / 25–3329 / 22–3129 / 22–3130 / 23–3333 / 26–3634 / 27–3735 / 28–3733 / 28–37
Night °C25 / 18–2624 / 19–2624 / 19–2522 / 18–2520 / 16–2518 / 13–2417 / 12–2318 / 13–2321 / 15–2423 / 18–2525 / 19–2625 / 19–26
Rain mm255 / 21–375244 / 43–361155 / 40–28750 / 19–13615 / 5–676 / 1–843 / 2–1982 / 0–1988 / 2–12729 / 16–6874 / 35–147158 / 25–278
DLI38 / 33–4136 / 33–3937 / 34–4037 / 31–3834 / 27–3631 / 25–3433 / 25–3537 / 29–3942 / 33–4345 / 34–4643 / 33–4740 / 32–44
RH %62 / 53–6663 / 54–6760 / 51–6554 / 47–6352 / 45–6250 / 45–6450 / 43–6451 / 41–6551 / 43–6453 / 46–6256 / 49–6260 / 50–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 291 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (333 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2092:6285 (-14.625, 134.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 291 distinct grid cells holding 333 of the 335 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2092:6285 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -14.50_134.375, lapse-corrected -34 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 40 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeTaiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Lesser Sunda Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia · introduced: Great Britain, South European Russia, Ukraine, Benin, Burkina, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Zaïre, Chad, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Comoros, Madagascar, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Iraq, Oman, Yemen, China South-Central, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, Qinghai, China Southeast, Tibet, Xinjiang, Korea, East Himalaya, Nepal, Cambodia, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines, Christmas I., New Guinea, Tonga, Marianas, Honduras, Trinidad-Tobago, Peru · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-13.622, 131.36 · in the densest population, 116 records (12% of those in range)
Kew's description“scrambling annual or perennial” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 989 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 333 of them in the land cells it reads, of 335 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 964 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 398 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 654 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 989 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Vigna radiata, photograph 1did not loadVigna radiata, photograph 2did not loadVigna radiata, photograph 3did not loadVigna radiata, photograph 4did not loadVigna radiata, photograph 5did not loadVigna radiata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Bharat Godambe, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) swanand kesari, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) renjus box, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Melaleuca nervosa Melaleuca nervosa Yellow-barked Paperbark Photo: CC BY-SA, Kate BrownIpomoea eriocarpa Ipomoea eriocarpa Morningglory Photo: CC BY, JoshAmmannia baccifera Ammannia baccifera Monarch redstem Photo: CC0, author not statedCausonis trifolia Causonis trifolia Vitaceae Photo: CC BY, Utain PummarinFimbristylis littoralis Fimbristylis littoralis Lesser fimbristylis Photo: CC BY, WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁Melaleuca leucadendra Melaleuca leucadendra Weeping paperbark Photo: CC BY, Petra Holland

Other Vigna 9 in the reference

Vigna angularis Vigna angularis Adzuki bean Photo: CC BY, mami_t_tVigna luteola Vigna luteola Hairypod cowpea Photo: CC0, author not statedVigna marina Vigna marina Notched cowpea Photo: CC BY, smathichongVigna mungo Vigna mungo Black gram Photo: CC0, author not statedVigna reflexopilosa Vigna reflexopilosa Creole-bean Photo: CC BY, 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng ZengVigna subterranea Vigna subterranea Bambarra groundnut Photo: CC BY-SA, tmcowitiVigna umbellata Vigna umbellata Rice bean Photo: CC0, author not statedVigna unguiculata Vigna unguiculata Cowpea Photo: CC BY, Greg III EsperaVigna vexillata Vigna vexillata Zombi pea Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández

Names & registers

Also known as Azukia radiata; Phaseolus aureus; Phaseolus radiatus; Phaseolus radiatus var. aureus; Phaseolus radiatus var. grandis and 5 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(L.) R.Wilczek
Native to
Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh +13
Wild records
989 in range · 964 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 18 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (11 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 5 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -14.50_134.375, lapse-corrected -34 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22Wikipedia's article Mung bean, the English article of this species' Wikidata item (Q484447)
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 89 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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