The base collection of wild species of Phaseolus and Vigna: history, management and conservation.The National Botanic Garden of Belgium ensures the management of a base collection of botanical and wild forms in the tribe Phaseoleae and the sub-tribe Phaseolinae. The main objective is to conserve on a long terni basic the largest possible genetic diversity through seed semples stored at - 20°C. The collection provided the basic material for the investigations conducted at the University Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of Gembloux in fields as diverse as taxonomy, genome analysis, definition of genetic réservoirs, agronomie and chemical evaluations, interspecific hybridization and plant breeding. The results have allowed to becter understand the organization of genetic diversity in the studied plant material and to highlight the wealthy genetic potentiel of the collection. The latter should be preserved and valorized for the genetic improvement of food legumes, in particular within the two genera Phaseolus and Vigna.