Forward-Introduction-Acknowledgements

Forward

There are many excellent articles, videos and books about bean plants.  However, none tell the day-by-day story of how that little bean grows up, flowers and produces one of the staples in the diet of many peoples, many countries. In Part 1, we focus mainly on the easily visual stages of vegetative growth. In Part 2, we examine more closely (via microscopy) the internal cell structure and reproductive phase of the plant. In Part 3, we give you all the information you need to grow your own bean plants.

We have designed this e-book so that each photo can be copied. So, instructors interested in using these photos can easily capture them. Please be sure to include the caption!

We are housing this e-book in the Plant and Soil Sciences e-Library, Department of Agronomy and Horticulture at the University of Nebraska so that it will be easily accessible and free to anyone who wishes to download it.

It is our hope that by viewing and/or actually growing red kidney bean plants, that individuals will get excited about plants and investigate and hopefully choose horticulture and/or agronomy as their career.                         

Acknowledgements

Special Thanks to Dr. Luqi Li, Dr. Meghan Sindelar, Ms. McKinzie Sutter and Ms. Bailey Feit for their critical review of this document.and particularly to Mrs. Diane Nolan for formatting this book and Lana Koepke Johnson for editing the pictures.

Cover photo by E. T. Paparozzi