Root Sprouts of Domesticated Phaseolus coccineus L. Overwinter Plants and the Environment at Its Collection Sites

Buds emerge from the roots of domesticated runner bean plants (Phaseolus coccineus L.) as sprouts and give the crop its persistence. This particularity of the species seems to be associated with the environment where the species was cultivated during long time. Data on regrowth traits were recorded on 70 accessions of domesticated P. coccineus after overwintering at a site in the central highlands of Mexico. The characteristics recorded included fresh weight of vegetative regrowth, root length, root crown diameter, and diameter of the main root. Most accessions that sprout the following spring, after the grain harvest of the previous year, come from temperate and semi-cold sites with cambisol and andosol soils in mixed Quercus pine forest and high mountain fir trees. Those that do not sprout are from sites of semiarid temperate climate, haplic phaeozem soil in shrub grasslands with deciduous broadleaved trees, and semiwarm subhumid climate, eutrophic regosol soil in deciduous broadleaved forest. Two types of roots were differentiated: branched and thickened taproots, also associated with a different climate, and the type of soil of the collection sites.