Red hamburger bean, Tiree

Elaine reckons this is a fossilised liquorice alsort, but it's actually a sea-bean from the land based plant Mucuna urens or Red hamburger bean, which grows in tropical Central and South America, from the West Indies to Panama and Brazil! It's basically the seed of the plant which floats around the oceans until it gets washed up hopefully somewhere suitable for it to germinate. It's crossed the Atlantic Ocean to allow me to find it on a beach on Tiree. A real message in a bottle!

In theory I could try to get this bean to germinate, but since it's a large tropical species which climbs like a vine through trees, it seems a pointless exercise. It won't survive in the garden and I don't want a large vine in the house (or the garden really). Some people polish them and make jewelry out of them, which is an option, but most likely it will find a place on my bookcase as a memento of the holiday.

This how it looks in the pod. It's a member of the pea family.

Traigh Ghrianal beach.

Just one of many glorious beaches on Tiree.

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