Sea beans, the name is surprisingly unknown to most people. Are they edible? No. Where do they grow? They self-sow in most cases, and are responsible for diverse plants finding root in new places.

Nickernuts, dove gray in color, like the sky before a storm. The seed coat is near impenetrable, almost as hard as the glass marbles they resemble in size. I planted the seeds in soil to no avail. I soaked them for days without any water absorption occurring, my next attempt might be drilling them with my Dremel tool.

These sea beans are stored in a hidden area in my home. Several of them appear to be the seeds of the Castor Bean plant. This plant is extremely toxic. I haven’t planted any of these seeds; I don’t want a Castor Bean plant growing in my home or garden because of possible danger to pets and children.

I managed to grow a few of the sea beans we collected in October on Sanibel Island, Florida. After soaking in water, they sprouted and grew slowly, but have been great fun to watch. The advice I read that sea beans might take a year to sprout is correct. The tiny sprig on the left appeared months after sowing.

Wordnik has a good definition:

Any of a diverse variety of fruits, seeds or disseminules of land plants that find their way into the world’s oceans and ride currents for months or years before washing up on distant beaches and coastlines.

~Wordnik

Want to learn more about sea beans? Check out this site: What’s A Sea Bean?