Editing Lima bean (section)

==Origin and uses==
''Phaseolus lunatus'' is found in [[Mesoamerica|Meso]]- and [[South America]]. Two gene pools of cultivated lima beans point to independent [[domestication]] events. The Mesoamerican lima bean is distributed in neotropical lowlands, while the other is found in the western Andes.<ref name="Serrano-Serrano et al 2012" /> They were discovered in Peru and may have been the first plant that was brought up under civilization by the native farmers.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Lima_Bean |title=Cookbook:Lima Bean - Wikibooks, open books for an open world}}</ref><ref name=leonard>{{cite book |last=Leonard |first=Jonathan Norton |date=1970 |title=Recipes, Latin American cooking |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J8SLxAEACAAJ |publisher=Time-Life International (Nederlands) |page= 21 |isbn=9780809400638}}</ref>

The Andean domestication took place around 2000 BC<ref name="motta">{{cite journal |last1=Motta-Aldana |first1=Jenny R. |last2=Serrano-Serrano |first2=Martha L. |last3=Hernández-Torres |first3=Jorge |last4=Castillo-Villamizar |first4=Genis |last5=Debouck |first5=Daniel G. |last6=Chacóns |first6=Maria I. |title=Multiple Origins of Lima Bean Landraces in the Americas: Evidence from Chloroplast and Nuclear DNA Polymorphisms |journal=Crop Science |date=September 2010 |volume=50 |issue=5 |pages=1773–1787 |doi=10.2135/cropsci2009.12.0706 }}</ref> and produced a large-seeded variety (lima type), while the second, taking place in Mesoamerica around 800 AD, produced a small-seeded variety (Sieva type).<ref name="motta" /> By around 1300, cultivation had spread north of the [[Rio Grande]], and, in the 1500s, the plant began to be cultivated in the [[Old World]].<ref name="motta" />

The small-seeded (Sieva) type is found distributed from [[Mexico]] to [[Argentina]], generally below {{convert|1600|m|ft|abbr=on}} above sea level, while the large-seeded wild form (lima type) is found distributed in the north of [[Peru]], from {{convert|320|to|2030|m|ft|abbr=on}} above sea level.

The [[Moche (culture)|Moche]] culture (1–800 CE) cultivated lima beans heavily and often depicted them in their art.<ref>Larco Hoyle, Rafael. ''Los Mochicas''. Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera. Lima 2001. {{ISBN|9972-9341-0-1}}.</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2021}} During the Spanish [[Viceroyalty of Peru]], lima beans were exported to the rest of the Americas and Europe, and since the boxes of such goods had their place of origin labeled "[[Lima, Peru]]", the beans got named as such.<ref name=leonard />
The term "butter bean" is widely used in North and South Carolina for a large, flat and yellow/white variety of lima bean (''P. lunatus'' var. ''macrocarpus'', or ''P. limensis''<ref>Oxford English Dictionary, 45th Edition, various quotations</ref>). In the United States, Sieva-type beans are traditionally called butter beans, also otherwise known as the Dixie or Henderson type. In that area, lima beans and butter beans are seen as two distinct types of beans, although they are the same species. In the United Kingdom and the United States, "butter beans" refers to either dried beans, which can be purchased to rehydrate, or the canned variety, which are ready to use. In culinary use there, lima beans and butter beans are distinct, the former being small and green, the latter large and yellow. In areas where both are considered to be lima beans, the green variety may be labeled as "baby" (and less commonly "junior") limas.

In Spain, it is called ''garrofón'' and constitutes one of the main ingredients of the famous Valencian ''[[paella]]''.

In [[India]], they are called double beans. Dried beans are soaked overnight and [[Pressure cooking|pressure-cooked]] as ingredients in [[curries]].