Scientists find the exact rock where a desert bean began
Seed Saving
A beloved desert-garden staple traces back to a single mountainside, and knowing its exact wild origin helps breeders find the drought and heat tolerance genes modern tepary beans may have lost.
Back in 1849, a plant collector named Charles Wright picked up a wild bean in the mountains of West Texas that turned out to be the original ancestor of the tepary bean, a legume still grown today because it thrives in brutal heat and drought. For over 150 years nobody knew exactly where on the map that first plant came from. By digging through old field notes and matching them to the landscape, scientists pinpointed the spot at Hueco Tanks near El Paso, hiked back there in September 2025, and collected fresh seed so this wild population can be preserved for future breeding.
Key Findings
The lectotype and isolectotype specimens of Phaseolus acutifolius are held at Harvard (GH00064068) and Kew (K000900693) herbaria
Analysis of Charles Wright's 1849 field notes and exploration route identified North Mountain at Hueco Tanks, El Paso County, Texas, as the type locality
The site was revisited in September 2025 and seed was collected for germplasm conservation, with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department credited for protecting the site
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers tracked down the exact rocky mountain spot in West Texas where a 19th-century botanist first collected the wild ancestor of the tepary bean, a drought-tough crop grown by desert farmers for centuries, and gathered fresh seed there in 2025 to preserve it before it's lost.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
In search of the original tepary bean, Phaseolus acutifolius Asa Gray (Leguminosae, Phaseoleae), in the Trans-Pecos Region of Texas
This note presents the search for the type locality of the tepary bean, Phaseolus acutifolius. Two specimens kept in the herbaria of Harvard (GH00064068) and Kew (K000900693) were considered as lec...
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Phaseolus acutifolius, also known as the tepary bean, is a legume native to the southwestern United States and Mexico that has been grown there by the native peoples since pre-Columbian times. It is more drought-resistant than the common bean and is grown in desert and semi-desert conditions from...