'Potawatomi Rabbit Bean' African Pea

Vigna unguiculata subsp. unguiculata

Origin: Gun Lake Band, Potawatomi People (Hopkins, Michigan)

Improvement status: Cultivar

Seeds per packet: ~35

Germination tested 10/2025: 98%

Life cycle: Annual

Potawatomi Rabbit Bean' is a large brown-and-blue-mottled African Pea from the Gun Lake Band of the Potawatomi people in Hopkins, Michigan. African Peas are also known as southern peas, black-eyed peas, and cowpeas — but they are not just food for cows! This Indigenous variety is an excellent African Pea for nothern farms and gardens. It's considered a pole-type, so will do best with a substantial trellis. The seeds are the largest African pea EFN co-founder Dusty has ever seen!

We are excited to have this variety in the catalogue from grower Celeste Tannenbaum, who says this has been a very consistent, reliable, and productive variety when grown for her in northeast Ohio.

GROWING TIPS: Direct sow seeds in warm soil some weeks after the last threat of frost has passed. This variety should be provided with a trellis, or at least plenty of room for plants to sprawl around (trellis will greatly increase productivity).