How did the lima bean get its name?

America's Favorite Beans

Although pronounced differently the lima bean gets its name from Lima Peru, where the bean has long been used as a food.

Lima bean are one of America’s favorite beans.

This large, flat bean takes its name from the city of Lima.  Peru, where the bean has long been cultivated as a food.  (Although the city’s name, Lima, is pronounced LEE ma, the bean is properly called LIE ma).

Like other beans, limas are seeds that grow in pods on bushy plants.  The broad pods develop from butterfly-shaped flowers.

The large limas often grow an inch wide and ¼-inch thick.  Only the lima bean seeds are eaten.

Beans are among out most important vegetables.  They grow in almost every country and are often used as an inexpensive substitute for meat.

Bean plants help enrich the soil with nitrogen, which other plants need for growth.

Beans have become so commonplace that when a person doesn’t have much sense we say of him.  “He doesn’t know beans.” – Dick Rogers