Hey all,
I’m a hobby wannabe botanist. I like to document all the species I can find and add them as observations to the inaturalist. I recently discovered Phaseolus dumosus growing here on a remote mountain of Haiti. I got some beans from a neighbour and planted them without knowing the species. Lo and behold they’ve turned out to be a isolated strain of P. dumosus. My neighbours say that it’s been here for many years. I’m planning to ask the oldest man around if he knows if they were here when he was young.
Firstly, I’m happy to share but I have no idea how to get them out of the country without lying to US customs. A few beans aren’t worth locking me out of the US for life. Any ideas?
Secondly, does anyone know who to contact within the USDA in order to get them seeds? They’re growing strains of P. dumosus from all over Central America so I would suspect they’lde be interested in these too.
I doubt this plant widespread because it’s never been seen bere before. It’s also really vigourous compared to P. vulgaris or coccinus here. I really don’t want to see it lost to humanity.