>>509378274Phaseolus (bean, wild bean)[2] is a genus of herbaceous to woody annual and perennial vines in the family Fabaceae containing about 70 plant species, all native to the Americas, primarily Mesoamerica.[3][4]
Wild P. vulgaris is native to the Americas. It was originally believed that it had been domesticated separately in Mesoamerica and in the southern Andes region some 8,000 years ago, giving the domesticated bean two gene pools.[15][16] However, recent genetic analyses show that it was domesticated in Mexico first, then split into the Mesoamerican and Andean P. vulgaris gene pools.[17]
Beans, squash and maize (corn) are the three Mesoamerican crops that constitute the "Three Sisters", central to indigenous American agriculture.[18]
The common bean arrived in Europe as part of the Columbian exchange.[19]