(Synonyms: Haricot Parisien; Haricot du Mexique). Like the Shah de Perse bean, this variety, because of the black colour of its grain, is only grown for the production of green beans. Because of its very dwarf size and its great precocity, it is particularly sought after for cultivation under frames, as well as for the first sowing in the ground. For seasonal cultivation, preference is generally given to other more productive races with longer pods. Stocky plant, very dwarf, little branched, hardly exceeding 0.30m in height, forming small erect tufts, very compact.
Foliage of a fairly pale green, composed of fairly elongated, slightly pointed leaflets, with a moderately developed blade, slightly blistered and slightly embossed. Lilac flowers are carried on short peduncles and hidden by the foliage.
Pods medium or fairly short, with parchment, green, usually streaked with purplish red, straight, rather flattened, from o.1om to o.12m in length, with 0.012m to 0.013m in width, ending in a fairly tapered and elongated straight point.
These pods usually contain 5 black seeds, with white umbilicus, oblong, thick, slightly kidney-shaped, 0.013m to 0.014m long, 0.007m to 0.008m wide and 0.006m to 0.0065m thick. The litre weighs on average 700 grams and 100 grams contain about 410 grains. This variety is extremely precocious, being scarcely outstripped in this respect by the Triomphe des Chassis flageolet dwarf bean, which flowers five to six days earlier.