Technical Abstract: Heat and drought are major constraints to legume production worldwide, while use of tepary, a desert native species of the U.S. Southwest and Mexico with elevated levels of abiotic stress tolerance, remains limited partly due to poor seed, production, and cooking characteristics. In an effort to generate tepary germplasm with wider adoptability, breeding lines are being developed with improved seed size and growth habit, while maintaining common bacterial blight resistance, and drought and heat tolerance.