Sea Bean Collectors

Post photos of sea-beans!

Post photos, contribute to the Sea-Bean discussions, etc.

Texas Sea-Beams

Texas Parks and Wildlife

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has provided a web page of over a dozen Texas sea-bean photos and descriptions. This page references a chapter in the following publication: Ilo Hiler; 1983 Sea-Beans. Young Naturalist. The Louise Lindsey Merrick Texas Environment Series, No. 6, pp. 98-101. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.

Travels with "Mr. Bean"

Travel the world vicariously with "Mr. Bean" through his photojournal!

Through a multitude of photos from around the world, "Mr. Bean" shares his life experiences with all of us who haven't yet travelled with him! Watch a slide show or view photos individually...   ya just gotta see them all!

Travels With "Mr. Seabean"

Izumi Hanno's cartoons, photos, and information on Seabeans

Izumi's artistry, humor, photography and information about her travel with the rather talkative "Mr. Seabean" (see "photo" at left). Check out Izumi's and "Mr. Seabean's" travels to the 2002 Sea-Bean Symposium in Cocoa Beach, Florida (USA), and a later trip to Iriomote and Ishigaki Islands in the Western Pacific. Further seed-collecting adventures have encompassed 7 different countries! Additionally "Travels with Mr. Seabean in Borneo" was published in The Drifting Seed Newsletter 11(1):2-3.

Sea-bean Collectors - Frappr Maps & Chat

World Map for Locating Sea-Bean Collectors

This web site is a congregation area for sea-bean collectors, worldwide. Add your own account, your pin on the map, and chat online with other sea-bean collectors.

Seabean Collection - Kuantan, Malaysia

Photos of Sea-beans from Kuantan, Malaysia

This web page displays over 30 sea-beans from Kuantan, Malaysia. Each drift seed is represented by a photograph with a ruler for measurement of the seeds.

Japan Driftological Society

Sea-beans and other drift items in Japan

This web site reports on several seeds that are found in Japan. The text is mostly in Japanese, but has English dispersed throughout. If you know Japanese, great! If you don't, you can learn, and it's fun to see what results from clicking the links! The Japan Driftological Society would like to help people exchange information on drifted objects from all perspectives. The Japan Driftological Society is a venue for 21st-century study arising from “grass-roots” networking. Accordingly, rather than prescribing a framework for such diverse interests and studies, the Society aims to freely encompass all fields.

Wayne's Word Sea-Bean T-Shirt

A variety of Sea-Beans pictured on a great T-shirt!

Wayne Armstrong has a storefront on CafePress, with a great Sea-Bean T-shirt for sale, at a VERY reasonable price! Wayne Armstrong is the creator of the great "Wayne's Word" website on Natural History. See Wayne's other sea-bean links on this page!

Beachcomber's Alert
"Bachcomber's Alert" Newsletter, a discussion group, and links.
	A place on the web where beachcombers from around the world obtain and exchange information about what's floating on the ocean and what's landing on the beaches. A Production of the Beachcombers' and Oceanographers' International Association (B&OIA)

"On The Strand"

A beachcombing website by Cathy Yow

Cathy Yow is a professional beachcomber who offers beachcombing classes and guided beach walks primarily on Galveston Island, Texas USA. She also conducts basketry courses and offers hand-crafted jewelry for sale via her website. The site provides the capability of getting your "beach find" posted for identification or simply for others to see.

Elizabeth Tashjian, "The Nut Lady", 1913 - 2007

Founder of The Nut Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut, USA

Ms. Tashjian has been a guest on the Letterman show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, and other high-profile media events. Ms. Tashjian's website - Enjoy her thoughts and songs! Nuts in the Limelight - 2004 exhibition of Nut Lady Elizabeth Tashjian Nut Lady Dies

Sculptures of Sea-Beans !

Sculptures of the Seaheart (Entada rhedeii) and its seed pod, a "Hamburger" bean (Mucuna sloanei), and a Grey Nickernut or Sea Pearl (Caesalpinia bolduc)

This is a page of some unique sculptures by French artist Séverine Cadier Soltysiak. Of course, you'll want to browse the entire site as it contains some incredible sculptures of other plants, seeds, seedpods, etc.

Giant nut drawing blushed approval.   World's biggest seed gets crowds thinking.

Sprouting a Coco de Mer ?

"The biggest and most salacious seed in all the world has come to the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers, and no one can look at it without blushing." This article is from the San Francisco Chronicle, May 26, 2002.

Amazing Lucky Sea Bean

Additional Information on Sea-Beans

This page provides information on growing sea-beans, other links to seabean sites, and also has sea-beans for sale (e.g., seahearts) for use in jewelry or sprouting.

Sandy Hook's Sea Beans

An article by Dave Grant, Director of the Ocean Institute at Sandy Hook

This page captures the joy of seabean discovery and discusses the ecology of seabeans that wash ashore in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, USA. The image at left is the water-nut (Trapa natans) which washes out of the Hudson River to the New Jersey beaches.

Sea Breeze   (Canaveral National Seashore's newsletter)
Canaveral National Seashore Silver Anniversary Edition, 1975-2000
	This "pdf" version of the 8-page (730 KB) issue of "Sea Breeze" contains a 1-page article (pg. 3; 90K) written and illustrated by Cathie Katz in 1999. It is titled: Uncommon Treasures at Canaveral National Seashore

Sea Poison Tree - Barrringtonia asiatica

The "Box Fruit" Drift Seed is from this tree.

This is a single page that displays this tree's Box Fruit, mentions it's habitat, discusses it's biology, hosts, and it's poison nature.

Sea Beans and Drift Seeds: Brevard County, Florida USA
Sea beans which might be found along the central-eastern Florida coast.
	This site has quite a collection of images of seabeans a (Pictorial Directory), all on one page as well as a separate page for information on each bean. This page is part of the website for the Brevard Museum of History and Science

"Hamburger" Beans and Bat-Pollinated Mucuna Flowers
Night-flying bats sip nectar from the flowers and pollinate the plants.
© W.P. Armstrong, 2000	Yet another great "Wayne's Word" page, full of information about several species of Mucuna. Also called hamburger beans, these seeds come in quite a variety. There are many species of Mucuna throughout tropical regions of the world. This Wayne's Word page shows you several of them, and includes images of their native habitat and seed pods.

Mucuna urens
A sea-bean from Costa Rica and Panama to the West Indies, Guiana and Brazil.
Mucuna urens	Load this page into your browser, and then look for the 5th paragraph... it'll tell you a few things about Mucuna urens. This is an article from the Jan-Feb issue of TRI-OLOGY, Vol. 37, No. 1. Also see another page for medicinal use of Mucuna urens, the Horse-eye or Oxeye bean. Some think that it cures hemorrhoids!

Lodoicea maldivica, Coco-de-mer
Coco-de-mer in it's native habitat!
Coco-de-mer	This site (The Virtual Palm Encyclopedia) has several photos of the 55 pound (25 KG) Coco-de-mer ("double coconut") seeds, the trees that they grow from, and the habitat where they live in the Seychelle Islands.

Sea Hearts!
"Wayne's Word" Noteworthy Plant For May 1997
	The Sea Bean (Entada gigas), known in Costa Rica as "escalera de mono" or "monkey ladder" is the legume with the world's longest seed pod which can reach lengths of six feet.

ILDIS
International Legume Database & Information Service
	The International Legume Database & Information Service (ILDIS) is an international project which aims to document and catalogue the world's legume species diversity in a readily accessible form.

The Bean Bag
A newsletter to promote communication among research scientists concerned with the systematics of the Leguminoseae/Fabaceae.
	This page allows access to the Bean Bag issues from June 1995, the current Bean Bag readers directory, reader registration and comment forms as well as providing links to related web pages.

Island Wari
A board game played with Nickernuts, Caesalpinia spp.
	Often referred to as Mancala and Ourri in Africa, and Sungka in the Philippines, the game is played on a rectangular board with a row of 6 cuplike depressions or wells on each side and a larger well at each end. Game rules and variations are included on this site. To keep up with technology, the game has a DOS Shareware version for your PC. Download Mancala at ImageSoft.

Nickernut (or Nickarnut, or Sea Pearl)
"Wayne's Word" site for Caesalpinia bonduc (gray colored) and C. major (yellow colored)
	Nickernut is an important coastal plant that is capable of sustaining itself in dry dune conditions and thus helps to stabilize shorelines. The plant grows rapidly and produces large, sharp, recurved spines that are very formidable. The flowers produce sets of green, spiny pods that when dry will be very prickly! The pods usually contain two seeds each. See also, my own page on Nickarnuts.

Mary's Bean
"Wayne's Word" site for Merremia discoidesperma; also called Crucifixion Bean
	One of the most unique and unmistakable drift seeds, the Mary's Bean also has the greatest documented drift range of any sea-bean.

Sea Hearts - www.seaheart.com
A commercial site, with offices located in Montreal Canada
	This site also offers informative pages of the "Legends of the Seaheart" (linkup, then click lower left corner of graphics), and pictorial " Journey of the Seaheart"

Copaifera
A "Wayne's Word" page including Prioria copaifera or Timbo, a Costa Rican drift pod!
	The Copaifera trees are very abundant on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica along tidal estuaries and ascending to elevations of about 1,000 feet. This page contains information and graphics about MANY other legumes and drift seeds.

Ivory Nut Palm Seeds
Ivory-nut Palm Seeds (Phytelephas macrocarpa) found on Fisherman Island, Virginia, USA
	"The vegetable "ivory" inside the seeds is used to make buttons and artifacts such as chessmen. The product is so like elephant ivory that it is used as a substitute for elephant ivory - whose trade is regulated by international agreements." - John V. Dennis These seeds (and others) are commercially available at Doren's Artistic Woodturning - www.ivorynutpalm.com.

The Sea-Beans of Canaveral National Seashore
Canaveral National Seashore is located on the central east coast of Florida, USA
	This new site, initiated in October 1999, intends to list the sea-beans found in Canaveral National Seashore. The first article is on beans of the genus Dioclea, commonly called "Sea Purse". The site also has a " Sea Bean Coloring Page".

Drift Seeds and Drift Fruits
Another "Wayne's Word" site introducing Drift Seeds
	This site contains not only an introduction to drift seeds themselves, but also their ecology, distribution mechanisms, taxonomy, and ties to historical events and early seafaring explorers. An incredible amount and variety of information and data packed into one page.