Winged beans are one of the versatile edible legumes of tropical origin. The plant is a climber in the fabaceae family and closely related to the pole beans. Its scientific name is Psophocarpus tetragonolobus ascribing to its fleshy four-angled fruit pod.

Winged bean is one of its own kind of plants since almost all the parts of the plant including immature pods, mature seeds, tender leaves and shoots, flowers and tubers are used in the East-Asian cuisine.