If you have a name for these beans I can check some sources. - Dick

Well, that's the problem. First of all, my mother doesn't speak English. Second, and most important, she just calls them "beans". She grew up in a small village and they didn't really keep track of names of varieties. They just were concerned with growing enough to have enough to eat.

I'll try and take some closeup pictures and post.

I always notice that pole beans have a small tendril that comes up as they start growing their second pair of real leafs.

I'm going out on a limb here, but would these beans be from somewhere in the former Yugoslavia? Your username sounds Croatian/Serbian.

Hello crnagora95. You guessed it. We're from the former Yugoslavia. We come from a town named Kragujevac. Actually, that's where I was born. My parents were born in tiny villages that probably aren't even on the map anymore.

Are you from that area?

I was born here in California, but my mother was born in Crna Gora and immigrated here in the 1980s with most of her family.

Kragujevac is a really nice town, we stayed there a little bit while we drove to Beograd.

Did your mother tell you what the use of the beans is, or what the pods look like? That might help find out what the bean is.

I should have noticed that in your user name! Nice to see a fellow Yugoslavian on here. In spite of all that's happened there over the last 20 years, I still think of myself as a Yugoslavian first.

She cooks them while they're still green and she also saves the beans to cook. I'm growing them this year so we'll see how they do and know for future!