Basic Species Information
The genus Phaseolus comprises some 70–80 species (Freytag & Debouck 2002), distributed exclusively in the Americas (Delgado Salinas et al. 2006) but with a clear focal point in Mexico and Central America. This region contains the largest number of species of the genus; it also harbors a very diverse range of environments in which the genus Phaseolus radiated following the last major tectonic event, namely, the appearance of the Transverse Volcanic Axis in Mexico. It is in this diverse landscape that five Phaseolus species were domesticated (Fig. 1). Of these five species, common bean (P. vulgaris) is by far the one with the broadest geographic distribution (Fig. 2) and largest agronomic, nutritional, and economic impact. Other domesticated species are runner bean (P. coccineus), tepary bean (P. acutifolius), lima bean (P. lunatus), and year bean (P. dumosus). In addition to the Mesoamerican domestications, two additional domestications took place in the...
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Gepts, P. (2014). Beans: Origins and Development. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2169
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