Wisteria Vines (Bean Trees) and Plants Symbol in The Bean Trees

All plants are symbolically important in the novel, as the well-being of nature matches the well-being of the characters. Taylor is surprised to find an abundance of plants in the desert, just as she is surprised at the quality of her new life in Tucson. Taylor also sees flowers, like the night-blooming cereus flower, as good omens for her future. When she first starts talking, the only words Turtle speaks refer to vegetables, calling to mind the gardens in Tucson that are able to bridge the gap between man-made buildings and the wild bramble of nature.

Yet wisteria vines play a special symbolic role in their relation to Turtle’s character development. Wisteria vines (or “bean trees,” as Turtle calls them) are ugly looking plants at first, just as Turtle started the novel in a comatose, abused state. Yet the wisteria vines are also able to grow in poor soil where no other plants thrive. Turtle too comes back from her unfortunate infancy to become a vibrant little girl. At the end of the novel, Taylor learns that wisteria vines grow thanks to insects called rhizobia that create fertilizer for the plant. This mirrors the way that Turtle needed the support system of Taylor and their makeshift family in Tucson in order to grow.

Wisteria Vines (Bean Trees) and Plants Quotes in The Bean Trees

The The Bean Trees quotes below all refer to the symbol of Wisteria Vines (Bean Trees) and Plants. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

The wisteria vines on their own would just barely get by, is how I explained it to Turtle, but put them together with rhizobia and they make miracles.

Related Characters: Taylor Greer (Marietta Greer) (speaker), Turtle (April)

Related Symbols: Wisteria Vines (Bean Trees) and Plants

Page Number and Citation: 305

Explanation and Analysis:

Wisteria Vines (Bean Trees) and Plants Symbol Timeline in The Bean Trees

The timeline below shows where the symbol Wisteria Vines (Bean Trees) and Plants appears in The Bean Trees. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Feminism and Solidarity Among Women Theme Icon

...all the other, richer kids in her class. Marietta describes the bright colors of the flowers on their front porch, explaining that she and her mother both like to wear these... (full context)

...that her 1/8 blood rights won’t amount to much. Furthermore, Taylor sees the lack of trees in the area as a special offense to the Cherokee religion, which believes that trees... (full context)

...her “peculiar resume” from the odd jobs she had in Kentucky, including picking bugs off bean vines. Mattie laughs and goes to show Taylor the bean vines she has in a... (full context)

...bus stop to her house, she stops at Bobby Bingo’s truck to look at the vegetables he is selling. His produce is better and cheaper than the grocery store, and Lou... (full context)

The first frost of winter comes on Valentine’s Day and all of Mattie’s plants start to die. Taylor is saddened by this but Mattie is unfazed. Mattie says that... (full context)

...a tractor tire in the shop, then pours the can of water out on Mattie’s bean plants. As Taylor wonders why the bean plants didn’t die in the frost as the... (full context)

...soup she has made. Taylor imagines Lou Ann trying to find recipes that use the vegetables that Taylor brings home from Mattie’s garden and laments the fact that Lou Ann is... (full context)

...unseasonably warm again after the one frost on Valentine’s Day. Mattie says that the summer wildflowers blooming before Easter is a sign from the Lord that they all need to go... (full context)

...it happens, neither Lou Ann nor Taylor can make sense of Turtle’s true first word: Bean. (full context)

Turtle speaks her first word, bean, while she and Taylor are helping Mattie in the garden. Taylor tries to explain the... (full context)

Mattie suggests that Taylor take some beans home for Turtle to play with, and Taylor agrees (though she worries what Lou Ann... (full context)

...sweet and sour chicken for the party, though she had originally planned to make navy bean soup in honor of Turtle’s first word. By now, Turtle has said so many new... (full context)

...if her mother remarried. Lou Ann suggests that her mother should marry Bobby Bingo, the vegetable seller, so that Bobby and Turtle can talk vegetables all day. (full context)

...winter, comparing it to the Bible story of striking water out of a rock. These flowers out of bare dirt are the Miracle of Dog Doo Park. (full context)

...week. Turtle calls them Poppy and Parsnip, keeping up her trend of speaking solely in vegetables. Turtle greets Edna as “Ma Poppy,” just as she adds ‘ma’ to the beginning of... (full context)

Leaving Turtle to page through a magazine looking for pictures of veggies, Taylor goes to tell the nurse that she can’t answer the questions about Turtle’s medical... (full context)

Turtle interrupts Lou Ann and Taylor’s conversation to present Taylor a peanut she has dug out of the ground. Taylor tells Turtle the name for peanuts and... (full context)

Uninterested in Lou Ann and Taylor’s conversation, Turtle delightedly feeds peanuts to a duck. Taylor leans back and listens to bird song in the trees, a... (full context)

Turtle interrupts their conversation to call the Wisteria vines “bean trees.” Taylor looks again and realizes that the wisteria seeds do look like bean trees. (full context)

...starts to wonder why she really came. Taylor glances out the window at Lee Sing’s garden, then tells Esperanza that she has a beautiful name because it means hope in Spanish.... (full context)

...desert, though she is not very good at remembering the names of the foreign, thorny plants that thrive in this arid land. Mattie reminds Taylor that all of the plants that... (full context)

...had been touched, but Taylor knows that Turtle is just treating the dolls like the plants she loves. Turtle and Taylor go to see Cynthia every Monday and Thursday, a harder... (full context)

...finds Lou Ann and the kids at the park. Turtle is playing at making a garden, and Lou Ann is forcefully trying to stop Dwayne Ray from eating a purple jelly... (full context)

...Edna have something to show the kids. On their porch are a bouquet of silvery-white flowers called night-blooming cereus. These flowers only open one night a year. Taylor had earlier noticed... (full context)

Turtle walks up to one of the cereus flowers, which is as big as her head. Taylor kneels beside her and tells Turtle... (full context)

The cereus flower seems to bode good weather for travel, as Taylor and Turtle go to meet... (full context)

Turtle finds a picture of the wisteria vines she calls bean trees. The book says that wisteria vines actually thrive in poor soil thanks to a... (full context)

The Bean Trees

Barbara Kingsolver

Wisteria Vines (Bean Trees) and Plants Symbol Analysis

Wisteria Vines (Bean Trees) and Plants Quotes in The Bean Trees

Wisteria Vines (Bean Trees) and Plants Symbol Timeline in The Bean Trees