They are, from top and clockwise, Sea Heart also called Sailor's Heart, Hamburger Beans, Sea Pearl (although I'm not sure about this one), Starnut Palm, and hog plum, in case you didn't guess,this one is not so special.
A seabean is a fruit or seed that has drifted in from another continent. The ones we get are from Central America or Africa. My favorites are the sea heart and the hamburger bean. Since this picture, I have found one more sea heart, and one more hamburger bean, but the season hasn't really started yet. When the strong winds blow in lots of seaweed from the south east, that's the best time to search the beach.
I took this picture of the sea heart pod at the orchid show in Redlands. It was part of a display of items that are illegal to bring into the country. The pods are about 4 feet long from the monkey ladder vine. It is supposed to be the longest bean pod in the world. They say that Columbus found a sea heart floating in the eastern Atlantic and this inspired him to search for land to the west. I think I know how he felt. Once you discover one sea bean, you just have to look for more.
3 comments:
That's really cool, Sal. Does our continent produce sea beans? OR - do you just not collect them?
We just get sea potatoes in Lake Michigan, and we don't know where they come from. They are way too ugly to collect.
Well...we do produce sea-beans here, like red,white and black mangroves, mangos, sea pearls, and tropical almonds. To be a drift seed, it would have to follow the gulf stream current up toward the British Isles. Most are consumed by animals or sink to the ocean floor. The ones I find from the Caribbean or South America are very hard and float in order to travel long distances.
Very interesting Sally! I think the pointy one is neat - that could be painful to step on, depending on the position.
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