The wild ancestors of urid and mung beans (Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper and V. radiata (L.) Wilczek)

The crop plants Vigna mungo (urid, urd or black gram) and V. radiata (mung bean or green gram: and related taxa have been studied by seed protein electrophoresis, leaf phenolics chromatography, vegetative morphology, and seed testa patterns. The results disprove the theory that these species are very closely related and have evolved from a single wild taxon. The present evidence shows that V. mungo var. mungo and I. radiata var. radiata have independent lineages and were domesticated from two very distinct taxa. namely V. mungo var. silvestris and V. radoata var. sublobata respectively.