Samples were collected between 2011 (10 samples were lunatus and 8 vulgaris) and 2012 (8 samples lunatus and 7 vulgaris). The town and municipality of collection were determined based upon several interviews with producers, looking forward to identify and trace the collection route were wild beans were traditionally grown in the state of Campeche, performing collections in the nine municipalities of Hecelchacán, Hopelchén, Tenabo, Campeche, Champotón, Calakmul, Escárcega, Candelaria and Carmen, plus along 39 towns (Figure 1).

All of the collected samples were established on the field in the town of San Antonio Cayal, located in the Campeche municipality (19˚45'08.14"N and 90˚09'51.84"W, ASNM 31 m); these were sown in plots of six rows and six meters long; the planting distance between rows was 80 cm, plus 10 cm in between plants; a 50 kg density of seed per hectare was used. The cultivation conditions were under temporary planting, having August 24th, 2012 set as the cultivation date. The harvesting took place at the beginning of November for the early samples, coming to an end in the same year by December 29th with the late genotypes. The type of soil in this region is Luvisols known as K’ankab (classification according to the Mayan), red soils with high clay content but with permeable drainage [7] .

The agricultural practice consisted on preparing the cultivation soil throughout two dragging phases, performing the second by cross; the trenching was then carried out, followed by the drawing of the plot size; the planting was done, afterwards. A basal fertilizer application was performed using ammonium phosphate in dosages of 80 kg per hectare, plus 30 kg of nitrogen per hectare. Both manual and chemical weed control, as well as pest control was performed; furthermore, tutors were also set on site because most of the Phaseolus collected were samples sown associated with corn and classified as type IV growth.

The data was recorded in order to differentiate the samples as flowering days, maturity days, grain color, flower color, grains number per pod, grain yield and growth habit; the bean evaluation manual was used for data evaluation [8] .

The largest number of Phaseolus genotypes were located in the Campeche municipality (21 genotypes), followed by the Champotón and Hecelchacán with 4 genotypes, respectively. The lowest number of genotypes was located in the municipalities of Hopelchén (2), Tenabo (1) and Escárcega (1) (Figure 3). It is noteworthy that in the municipalities that were not reported in Figure 3 (Tenabo, Calakmul, Candelaria and Carmen), the Phaseolus collection was performed; nevertheless, similarities among the Phaseolus species collected per town were determined during the evaluation of the field. The evaluation of the collected genetic variability was performed based upon the expression of the different morphological characteristics in each accession related to the plant, flower, sheath and grain vegetative growth. These characteristics were repeated in several accessions.

The lunatus species is recognized by the Mayan farmers as ib, ibes or lime bean; the cultivation of this bean in the region has played a key role in the diet of the Mayan culture, being the fourth most important crop for the traditional Mayan agriculture in the Yucatan peninsula [9] -[12] . Consequently, it is understood that many of the collected samples during harvesting belong to the lunatus species (Figure 4), being the Campeche municipality where the largest sample of this species were found (12 collections), compared to the vulgaris species (9 collections).

*Production cycle times: Short (60 - 90 days), Intermediate (91 - 120 days), Long (121 - 150 days)

A pretty good idea related with the relevance of genetic resources is provided by such bean diversity among regional farmers, as well as the in situ germ-plasma preservation, which keeps being used year after year as part of the family heritage [13] . Features such as flavor, cooking quality, yield stability rather than local adaptability and performance are important attributes that lead farmers to preserve their “wild” varieties, keeping the genetic wealth of their communities [14] .

An objective of this sample collection was to have the genetic variation revealed in the traditional ecotypes for their future preservation and subsequent improvement. The collected and evaluated samples were sent to the germ-plasma bank based at the National Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (SINAREFI), located at the University of Guadalajara in the municipality of Zapopan, Jalisco.

The yield achieved by the collections that were carried out is shown in Table 2, which revealed higher yields than those 615 kg/ha [15] reported in the state of Campeche, having five lunatus and three vulgaris species standing out. The highest yield took place in the mejen ib, the big flat black ibes and the big white ibes, with 2867, 1327 and 1282 kg/ha, respectively.

The wild varieties potential versus the commercial varieties has been reported by several studies in such regard, mainly concerning yield performance, physical quality and protein content [16] [17] . Additionally, the bean that is both produced and consumed in Mexico comes mainly from native genotypes in lower levels of improved varieties, which have agronomic and quality advantages [18] .

The precipitation that took place from the samples planting date (Figure 5), to the harvest for seed increase, was 464 mm, if taking into account that the bean water necessity ranges from 600 to 700 mm in 3 or 4 months

[19] , having only 66% of the cultivation requirements covered; nonetheless, nine of the collected samples exceeded the 615 kg/ha yield average statewide (Table 2), proving their tolerance ability to extreme weather conditions. As reported by several studies, wild beans are naturally adapted to survive harsh climatic fluctuations until their final germination, under favorable conditions of subsequent cycles, occurs [20] -[22] as observed in the study hereby. The average temperature recorded during the evaluation was 26˚C, maximum was 36˚C and minimum of 18˚C, recorded at the end of the crop cycle.