Phaseolus acutifolius
Origin: Ali Chukson, Tohono Oʼodham Nation
Improvement status: Landrace
Seeds per packet: ~45
Germination tested 11/2024: 95%
Life cycle: Annual
We love tepary beans. This underutilized species of bean is the result of a separate domestication event from common bean, lima bean, and all other bean species. It was domesticated from tiny wild beans that still live in what's now northern Mexico and the US southwest, home to many Indigenous peoples whose ancestors first began consuming Phaseolus acutifolius directly from the wild, before eventually bringing it into cultivation and improving it year after year through intentional selection. The result is a plump, protein-rich, delicious bean species incredibly well-adapted to its desert home. Indeed, there are stories of tepary plants sprouting and growing to full maturity on just a single irrigation. This species may one day prove pivotal to the future food security of humanity, since they are among the only beans that can produce a crop even while nighttime temperatures are high (most beans require relatively cool nights to seed seed).
This tepary is an heirloom variety from the small Indigenous community of Ali Chukson in the Tohono O'ohdam Nation (located within the borders of the modern state of Arizona, not very far from the colonially-imposed border with the modern country of Mexico). It produces copious amounts of yellow-brown seeds, some with a lightly dappled surface, on somewhat spindly vining plants. The seeds are good for excellent as a dried bean, but great picked fresh as a shelly bean too.
We will donate 25% of the packet price for every packet sold to a Tohono O'odham-led farming and seed-saving project in support of their important work.
