Kitazawa has two varieties.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sword bean

Thank you zeedman. Do you have any ideal regarding clove beans availability?

Sandhill has Sword Beans

I looked for a supplier of clove bean seed, but did not find one in the U.S. They are commonly sold in Malaysia and India. I found one online seller that ships seed, but the price was very high.

Clove beans are members of the same family as sweet potato, they are not a bean as we know them.

Thank you fusion_power.

I think picture background for this page is clove beans vines and flowers, if not sweet potato!

The background photo for this page appears to be Morning Glory. Same genus as clove bean, and the flower does indeed look similar... but I believe Ipomoea muricata blooms at night.

Did a little more research. According to GRIN Taxonomy, Ipomoea turbinata Lag. is synonymous with Ipomoea muricata (L.) Jacq. I found sources listed under that pseudonym here and here. Apparently it is sometimes grown as an ornamental.

You should be aware that Clove Bean is considered to be a noxious weed in many U.S. states, and take great care that it does not escape beyond the garden... especially if you are in or near one of the states listed here.

Aaaaaaaa, I'm curious how this vegetable is eaten... it appears that the seed pods are nearly mature when harvested. Are the immature seeds themselves consumed?

I have no idea, how this bean is consumed? I heard this from my Malaysian visiting co-worker. Saw pictures online and became more curious. Thanks for letting me know about its growing restrictions in some parts of US, was not aware of that.

The white seeded bean is most likely Canavalia Ensiformis aka Jack Bean. You can find a few sellers if you search carefully. Price may be a problem. Jack Beans are commonly cultivated in South America, the Caribbean basin, India, and some parts of southeast Asia.

Just FYI, here's an article (admittedly heavily localized for Arizona's hot dry desert) about this poisonous little sucker taken from Native Seeds/Search :

Reviving Jack Beans

By Melissa Kruse-Peeples, NS/S Conservation Program Manager. Published 3/20/2015.

Imagine if you could take a time machine and visit an ancient Hohokam agricultural field 1,000 years ago. The crops in that field would contain corn, green-striped cushaw squash, and tepary beans – varieties familiar to contemporary Pima and Tohono O’odham farmers. But you might also find an unusual, yet majestic, bean known today as jack beans (Canavalia ensiformis).

Jack beans have been recovered from numerous archaeological sites throughout Central and Southern Arizona, including the Hodges Ruin located just a few miles from the Native Seeds/SEARCH Seed Bank in Tucson. Jack beans, an introduction from tropical environments of the Central and South America, appear as part of the Southwestern agricultural history around A.D. 700. However, this bean has just about disappeared from agriculture in Arizona. It was last documented among Pima fields in Sacaton, Arizona in 1938.Native Seeds/SEARCH conserves 2 accessions of Canavalia ensiformis. One collected from a mestizo dooryard garden outside of Navajoa, Sonora and another from Wilcox, Arizona that likely derived from a commercial source rather than a historical lineage of the area. In 2014 we were able to successfully regenerate one of these aging accessions to provide fresh seed samples. Through future growout efforts we hope to increase the seed supply and once again see these beans growing along the banks of the Santa Cruz and Salt Rivers.

Jack beans, also called wonder beans, generally require more water than desert-adapted tepary beans. However, once established the incredibly deep tap-root allows them to be drought resistant. This is an important characteristic because they require a long growing season of 150 days or more. They are also somewhat day-length sensitive with flowering triggered late in the summer. As with other types of beans, Canavalia are frost sensitive but have been documented to grow as semi-perennial bushes. The flowers of this species are gorgeous and resemble their distant cousins in the Phaseolus genus. The plants produce large vines and easily produce upwards of 50 pods per plant.

The enormous pods reach over a foot in length and can be eaten like a green bean when young, only a few inches long. Dried beans are mildly toxic and should not be eaten raw or in large quantities. They should be rinsed thoroughly. Unfortunately our 2014 harvest was modest and we sacrificed culinary experimentation in order to have more seed available to increase. [translation: don't get caught nibbling}

The revival of Jack Beans within Arizona fields is an important example of the power of agricultural biodiversity conservation. Local, regional and global food security depends on this diversity, particularly as we adapt to increased temperatures and prolonged droughts. The Native Seeds/SEARCH seed bank's primary function is to conserve this genetic diversity for the future and to revive traditional crops within fields and tables today.

A version of this article first appeared in The Seedhead News Number 119, Winter 2015.

Anyone had luck purchasing clove bean seeds in the US? Thanks