SUMMARY aiming to facilitate the identification of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cultivars a characterization of legumes and seeds was conducted on 24 genotypes included on experiment of the State Yield Trial Nursery located atthe Federal University of Santa Maria, during the 1992/93 growing season. On the legumes were evaluated the average length, color and profile form, and its extremity, as well as the average number of seeds per legume. On the seeds were determined size, form, weight, color and tegument brilliance, color of strials, hilum and halum. The traits analised varied as a function of genotypes and environmental conditions. Therefore the differences observed within each commercial group did not eliminate the difficulties related to visual identification of seeds and legumes.
beans; seeds; legumes; cultivar identification
