It is edible, we eat them. We sometime cook them with pods, but they are not as tender as green beans. The beans are good, but not as sweet as sweet peas, just don't let them become overly matured. They are beautiful to grow though, I love their flowers.

Hi annie-lee,
Does your scarlet runner bean look like this? I planted this for the first time this year. Got the seeds from a colleague who does not know the bean ID. I too love the flowers, they are striking. For me no mature beans yet, still waiting.

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Hi Sailamint,
Nop, that is not the kind I have. Mine have purple flowers. Also, the flowers are formed differently. Even the leaves look different (yours have a big cluster). I am not sure yours is edible, I would think so though. I would love to have yours also. Maybe we can trade? Thank you for sharing.

Annie-lee, from your description, I have to wonder whether what you have are runner beans. Not all runner beans have scarlet flowers; some are white, pink, salmon orange, or bi-colored - but to my knowledge, not purple. Purple is a color more often found in the blossoms of common beans. Regardless of the color, runner beans tend to have flowers in large clusters, which is a characteristic of the species. The cotyledons (seed leaves) remain underground after germination, unlike common beans.

Runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus) are indeed edible; there are several good threads about them on the Bean Forum. For the English & those with cool climates (such as the Pacific Northwest) they represent a good alternative to conventional snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) which can be disease-prone under those conditions. They are very popular in Europe, where there has been a greater emphasis on breeding new varieties.

The young pods of scarlet runner can be eaten as snaps, but have a slightly courser texture than you might be used to. If the pods are allowed to mature, the seeds within will be quite large - but they are often thick-skinned, and can have an unusual flavor.

Personally, if you are able to grow P. vulgaris (for snaps) or limas (for shell beans), I find them to be superior in both yield & quality for their respective purposes. If you wish to grow runner beans for consumption, I would recommend obtaining one of the far superior European cultivars. Thompson & Morgan and Gourmet Seed International are two of the best sources.

There are many threads about runner beans on GW; I have one on the Bean Forum just titled "Runner Beans", where I discuss their use as shellies. Another thread focuses on the pods, in the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Runner beans, have you ever eaten them?

Maybe you have hyacinth beans?

I agree with Korney, if you mistook them for Scarlet Runner, it is probably a hyacinth bean (Dolichos lab lab). They are showy like P. coccineus and are usually grown as ornamentals. They also have purple blossoms. They are both toxic and edible. They are widely used in southeast asia, but require special cooking techniques.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hyacinth Bean

I have some lab lab seeds that my uncle gave me. I found in my research that the fresh pods are not toxic, but the dry beans can be toxic and require special cooking techniques.

Thank you all for pointing out my mistake. Thank Zeedman for the excellent discussion about runner beans. Thank Farmerdilla and Korney, yes mine is Hyacinth bean then, you learn something new everyday. I didn't realize that the dry bean is toxic and I just cook it the ordinary way (didn't dry them though), but we didn't consume that much either. Genghis bunny, can you describe your research on the toxicity of "fresh pods" and "dry beans" in further details? That was the question the OP asked.

See this thread linked below. I stumbled upon it and remembered your thread here. Hope this helps.

Mark

Here is a link that might be useful: But has anyone actually EATEN hyacinth beans?

Wizzie - Zeedman has told you all you need to know about runner beans. And I agree that it does not sound as if you actually have runners. My last post on the thread s/he refers to is:
'Just sowed my Painted Lady seeds saved from last year in pots indoors today(along with yellow courgettes - zucchini to you). I will plant them out in about four weeks. Looking forward to those delicious runner beans in mid-June, weather permitting. If you've never tried runner beans, have a go. They are much more reliable than P vulgaris in my conditions.'

Well, as some of you may know we have had an incredibly wet summer and those runners are loving it. I am picking a bag of beans every three or four days from a row of 24 plants sown at intervals of about 2 weeks. As long as we do not get an early frost I expect them to crop until the end of October, having begun in late June. Strangely enough the P vulgaris are also cropping madly, as too are lettuces, chard, zucchini and brassicas. Everything is enjoying the wet except the tomatoes which have died of blight before they even set a single fruit.

Annie- save your seeds for the hyacinth beans, I really had difficulty finding seeds this year (I found some old ones that I still had), but couldn't buy them locally. Maybe that's just this area???
Anyway, I used to work with a guy from the Philippines that said they eat hyacinth beans over there. I just grow scarlet runner beans for the birds, butterflies, and bumblebees. I never considered that they may be edible.
Mrs H