I seem to recall an old-time pole bean called 'Telephone pole'. ~ Annie

Call Abbott and Costello...they know all about giant bean stalks..

CrAzY LaErY

That sounds like a tall cultivar Annie, would be neat if they still sold it and if it really grew as tall as a Telephone pole.

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LOL :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_the_Beanstalk_(1952_film)

It's interesting that many illustrators and people etc. think of the Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) when they read Jack and the Beanstalk. But really the Broad Bean (Vicia faba) was most likely in the fairy tale creators mind that made up the Jack and the Beanstalk story in the early 1700s.

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I've narrowed down the 46 ft record to these three bean plants. But I don't know the tallest cultivars of these three however:
Phaseolus vulgaris
Phaseolus coccineus
Phaseolus lunatus

Lunatus is lima bean, isn't it? What are the common forms of "coccineus?

Phaseolus vulgaris is the common bean (Kentucky Wonder etc.).
Phaseolus coccineus is the scarlet runner bean.
Phaseolus lunatus is the lima bean.

There are many others, but you say you have narrowed it down to these three.

Jim

Sweetannie

Are you thinking of "Tall Telephone"? FWIW, it's a garden pea, not a bean.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tall Telephone Peas (Alderman)

I have a bean plant 43 feet tall. Portland Oregon can anybody top that today? Today

I have a pole bean vine grow 25ft (Blue Lake Pole variety). It was in partial shade and our growing season isn't even as long as some other places (Toronto, Canada) so I'm not surprised people can grow them to 40ft+ in ideal conditions.

Photos of these claims anyone?

Although I grow a lot of pole varieties of all three Phaseolis species, I generally keep them trimmed down to my 6.5 foot trellises. But I did have a white-seeded runner bean jump the fence one year & climb into the adjacent apple tree, that vine reached the top (about 20'). I needed a ladder to pick the dry pods.

While I suspect that pole limas would probably be the tallest vines in full sunlight, any vigorous bean variety will react to shady conditions by extending its vines to reach sunlight - potentially to great heights. Which, while a fun experiment, can make harvest impractical. ;-)