Sujit asked "Am I right to conclude that regular bean sprouts we see in the market isEpigeal?" David wrote: "Quoting wikipedia: "The frequently garden grown common bean - Phaseolus vulgaris - is epigeal while the closely related runner bean - Phaseolus coccineus - is hypogeal." But the bean most often used for sprouts is not a Phaseolus - it's the mung bean, Vigna radiata. The genus Vigna also includes cowpeas, crowder peas and yard-long beans (these three are all forms of the same species) and the so-called cork-screw vine or snail vine, V. caracalla. Jim McKenney