Scientists are looking for crops that can grow in higher temperatures and with less water, and they are turning to desert plants. Rich Pratt, a plant geneticist at New Mexico State University, is a driving force behind a group called the "Extreme Bean Dream Team." The group is focused on the tepary bean, which Indigenous desert farmers domesticated more than 4,000 years ago.
Southwestern farmers grew teparies into the 20th century, according to the article, but dams and modern irrigation led farmers to switch to crops that need more water. Sarah Dohle, a bean-team scientist, manages a collection of about 17,000 bean varieties at a USDA facility in Pullman, Washington. She said she is getting more requests for teparies from small farmers and from agribusiness companies, including Archer-Daniels-Midland.
In September 2025, the team searched Trans-Pecos mountains for wild teparies. It found wild beans at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute near Fort Davis and on a local rancher's land in Dell City. A search in the Guadalupe Mountains was stopped by heavy rain and flooded roads. On state land in the Sierra Diablo Mountains, north of Van Horn, Dohle described finding a "blanket of beans."
The scientists are working to breed teparies with the common bean species Phaseolus vulgaris, which includes black, pinto and great northern beans, using gene editing and traditional hybridization. The article says the tepary genes could help these common beans handle heat.