Tepary bean facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Tepary bean |
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The Tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius) is a special type of legume, like a pea or lentil. It originally comes from the southwestern United States and Mexico. People living there have been growing this bean for thousands of years, even before Christopher Columbus arrived.
This bean is super tough! It can handle very dry weather better than the common bean. You can find it growing in deserts and dry areas from Arizona all the way through Mexico to Costa Rica. It doesn't need much water. It can even grow in places that get less than 400 mm (16 in) of rain each year.
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What Does a Tepary Bean Look Like?
The tepary bean plant grows for one year. It can grow in different ways. Some plants climb, some spread along the ground, and others stand up straight. Their stems can grow up to 4 meters (13 ft) long!
The scientific name, acutifolius, comes from Latin words. Acutus means "pointed," and -folius means "leaved." So, it means "pointed leaf." There are two main types: one with narrow leaves and one with wider leaves. The beans we eat today come from the wider-leaf type.
In the Sonora desert, the flowers appear when summer rains start, usually in late August. The bean pods ripen in the early fall when the dry season begins, often in October. Tepary beans can be almost any color! They come in many local types, and their size can vary, but they are usually small. They are ready to harvest about 60 to 120 days after planting.
Other Names for Tepary Beans
This amazing bean has many other names. Some of them are Pawi, Pavi, Tepari, Escomite, Yori mui, Yorimuni, and Yori muni. The name tepary might come from the Tohono O'odham language. In their language, tʼpawi means "It's a bean."
An old name for a small bean was recorded in the 1600s in the Eudeve language. It was called tépar or tépari. Names that include yori often mean "non-Indian person's bean." These names usually refer to beans that are not native to the area.
How People Grow Tepary Beans
Native Americans have been growing tepary beans for thousands of years. Scientists have found cultivated beans from as far back as 500 BCE in Mexico. It seems that all cultivated tepary beans came from one single place in northern Mexico.
Tepary beans are very good at surviving dry conditions. They need wet soil to start growing, but once they are established, they do well in dry places. If they get too much water, they won't produce as many beans.
Native Americans grew them in different ways. Often, they planted them after a rare desert rain or after floodwaters went down near a river. Tepary beans usually don't get many diseases, unless it's very humid.
Traditional Farming Methods
The tepary bean was a very important food for native people in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Besides growing them in floodplains, they often planted them with squash and corn. This way of farming is called Three Sisters agriculture. Growing these plants together helps them grow better and provides a more balanced diet for people.
In the 1800s, Tohono O'Odham farmers taught Anglo farmers in the American Southwest how to grow tepary beans. The Native American way was to plant three to five seeds in small mounds, about six to eight feet apart. They often planted beans in dry riverbeds, called arroyos, after summer rains had flooded them.
Growing in Extreme Conditions
Tepary beans can even grow in very tough places. The Sand Papago people, who were mostly hunter-gatherers, would grow tepary beans and other crops when there was enough moisture. In 1912, a researcher named Carl Lumholtz found small farms in the Pinacate Peaks area of Sonora, Mexico. These farms mainly grew tepary beans.
In the Pinacate, it only rains about 75 mm (3 in) a year, and temperatures can reach 48 °C (118 °F). But Papago and Mexican farmers used the runoff from the rare rains to grow crops. In the 1980s, author Gary Paul Nabhan visited this area. He saw a family planting seeds after the first big rain in six years. They harvested a crop just two months later! The most successful crops were tepary beans and a type of squash that could handle dry weather. Nabhan figured out that farming in the Pinacate was happening in one of the driest places in the world where crops are grown only with rain.
Today, northwestern Mexico is the main area where tepary beans are grown. They are also grown in many countries in Africa, Australia, and Asia. In India, tepary beans are used to make popular snacks like "bhujia" and Punjabi Tadka.
Future of Tepary Beans
As of 2015, scientists at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia are working with tepary beans. They are trying to mix tepary beans with common beans. The goal is to give common beans the tepary bean's ability to resist drought and heat. This could be very helpful as climate change affects farming around the world.
Medicinal Uses
Some research in the United States and Mexico suggests that certain compounds from tepary beans might help in treating cancer. These compounds include things called lectin toxins. However, more research is needed to fully understand these possible uses.
See also
In Spanish: Frijol tépari para niños
