"Wil" wrote in message
...
On Jul 26, 8:13 am, The Cook wrote:
On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:05:56 -0700 (PDT), Simon

wrote:
Just curious. What is the difference between "Beans" and "peas"? is
there a biological distinction? or just a linguistic/interchangeable
difference?

thanks,
Simon

Different.
Beans are of the genus Phaseolus, bush beans are Phaseolus vulgaris,
pole beans Phaseolus limensus.
Peas are of the genus Pisum.

woosh!...... (as the sound of comprehension does a mach 3 over my
head)

I don't know about you Simon, but that certainly cleared it up for me.
lol

Hey The Cook, can we get that in human language please?

Wil

I don't know how you answer this question other than to use the binomial
botanical names. The common names are part of the problem as many different
species are called "beans" or "peas" of one sort or another, so this sheds no
light on how similar or different they might be.

Wikipedia has quite fair articles on beans and peas which list many kinds and
give the botanical names. You can get _some_ idea how closely related they
are by following the botanical names up the hierarchy until they join. This
method is limited as the naming system is somewhat arbitrary. It is always
being altered and has to be seen as a contruction of science not a fact of
nature.

A trained botanist could describe the different structures and identifying
features of each kind of bean or pea but I'm not sure it would help that
much - in any case we don't have one handy unless there is a reader who would
like to delurk and lay it all out.

David

David