Vigna radiata (moong bean, "Ryokuto")

Japanese name: リョクトウ （緑豆）
Scientific name: Vigna radiata

[Overview]
An annual whose stems may be twining, creeping or erect.
The leaves are alternate and trifoliate, with large ovate to lanceolate leaflets.
They have long petioles and stipules.
Yellow to pale green pea-shaped flowers bloom in the leaf axils, and the keel petals of the flower are twisted.
The fruit is a slender cylindrical pod about 10 cm long, held sideways or hanging down.
Each pod holds 6–15 seeds (beans), which are usually green, though there are also yellow, brown and blackish brown strains.

[Uses]
The seeds are eaten.
In Southeast Asia, they are boiled with sugar like zenzai (sweet red bean soup) and eaten as a dessert.
In India, they are put in curries or used in the flour for chapati.
In China, besides being the raw material for harusame (cellophane noodles), they are made into bean paste and congee.
In Japan, they are used almost entirely as the raw material for bean sprouts.
The seeds are also used medicinally.

[Cultivation]
In its main growing regions the average annual temperature is 21–22 °C and the average annual precipitation is 1200 mm, so it is a plant suited to growing in high temperatures.
Depending on the variety, it can also be grown in cool highlands.
It prefers sunny, well-drained soil, and tolerates dryness but is weak against excess moisture.
Care is needed to avoid problems caused by continuous cropping.

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