I can try.
Personally, I think that is precisely what I have, a bean that is used to what I call "Andean conditions". Mottled Grey is one of Joe Simcox's finds, originally found in Fort Portal, Uganda, as was FPV and Bantu, another bean I have (and, of course, Fort Portal Jade, which you have came from there as well.) Fort Portal is a bit odd of a place, it's only about half a degree away from the equator, but it's about 5,500 feet above sea level, so it's quite cool. What I think happened is that, MG's original parent, and that off all the other beans that came from the Andes, and, unlike any of the others, MG never adapted to a different situation (say somewhere where it didn't have the option of getting 12/12 at a time when the temperature was still frigid (FPV, FPJ and bantua all produce fine, so presumably they did, or came from stock that already did).
As I said, this year at least I can take the pot inside to let anything that comes finish up. This may also allow me to look into way to deal with the other problem, how slow MG plants grow, as I said, only one or two plants look at all healthy, and those are also the only one or two that grew fast enough to actually develop climbing tendrils. Most of the plants do, and always have simply never gotten past being a short (maybe 9-12 inch) stalk. Big enough to make a pod or two, but not for anything like a full production. I suppose it is possible that MG is actually a mixed bean with some bush and some short pole in it, but I keep thinking that, if it there was bush (let alone if bush was the majority) by now I'd have seen a plant that branched a bit, and I haven't (a few vines have developed a second tendril once or twice, but mostly the plants are wholly linear) It looks like MG in addition to probably being photosensitive, has a very narrow window of temperatures it's likes. Higher than that, and the hear kills it, lower and the plants will not actually grow (and as far as I can tell, the temps where that happens are still well within those we people would consider pleasant. Basically if it is warm enough out you can get away with wearing short sleeves, it's too warm for MG, if you need a jacket, it's too cold) As is, I usually have to start them indoors about a month in advance to give them the time to get big enough to survive the transition outdoors. I think next year it may be worth it to start them even earlier, so they go out in the spring as nearly mature plants that can take advantage of the spring cool (at least that will work if I can get my indoor grow light fixed, so that I don't have to worry about the beans getting etiolated indoors and turning into seedlings with three foot stalks.
I may also already have a clue as to which ones work faster. I've noticed that when I do get seed back, it is invariably much shorter and wider than is the norm for seed (most MG seed is sort of kidney shaped, or kidney bean shaped without the curve). So I think the ones that work may be crossed with something else, and the short wide seeds can be used as a marker. By that logic, next year there should be more ones that "work" than there were this year, since there are a higher number of short wide seeds in the sample I am going to be working with (MG comes in two colors mostly, a black speckled tan (like Pebblestone) and a solid black. This year was a mottled year (where nearly all of the seeds were long and thin) next year is a black year (where the distribution of seed shapes is a lot more diverse there everything from a kidney shaped to something that is almost navy bean like)).
Speaking of differences I should also mention that the one plant that is healthy has a different flower arrangement than any of the others. MG tends to bear flowers more or less singly with the distance between two quite far. The healthy one seems more terminal with flowers in more of a cluster.
I think that, at the end of this, I will not, in fact have a working strain of bean, I'll have several isolated from each other by trait. A short fat seeded race that grows "normally" (within normal conditions here" and a climbing, long season terminal brancher.
Incidentally, one of the reasons I'm so frustrated with the deer that ate nearly all of my rice bean pods is that that particular plant turned out to be a bush type (rice beans are nearly all pole) as so the first patterned bush I've had (the last bush were incidentalys from tossed seed, so they were all the normal unpatterned red.) I'll have to remember to 1. make a note of that when I put them away and 2. put them in an envelope this time around since every time I use my sorting box, the box gets dropped and the seed re-mixed (with so few pods, I can basically save plant to package this year.)
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