Purutu beans (large)

Of particular interest are the paintings in which Carmelón Berrocal expertly depicts the 40 varieties of beans that grow in Sarhua, and meticulously records their Quechua names, and the diversity of their forms and colors. At Nanchoc, at the head of the Zaña valley in northern Peru, archaeologists have found the oldest known examples of the bean Phaseolus vulgaris, dated to around 9000 BC. To this day, beans constitute one of the most important domesticated plants consumed in Peru.