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LEGEND has it that Christopher Columbus鈥檚 discovery of the Americas began
with a 鈥渟ea bean鈥�. Inspired by an exotic drift seed washed up on Europe鈥檚
Atlantic coast, the explorer set sail in search of a westerly route to the
Indies. Columbus鈥檚 geography may have been a little awry, but his assumption
that the seed had journeyed from across the world was spot on. Sceptics of the
day claimed no seed could travel so far, and reckoned sea beans were shed by
fabulous plants growing deep beneath the waves.

It was 1698 before science caught up with Columbus. At the Royal Society in
London, the Irish-born naturalist and physician Hans Sloane revealed the true
origin of some of these mysterious botanical voyagers. Sloane, best known as the
founder of the British Museum, had spent an 18-month stint in Jamaica working as
personal physician to the governor. There he had come across the tropical vine
Entada gigas. Its impressive seeds, 6 centimetres across, were identical to sea
beans washed up on Scottish and Irish beaches, he noted.

Today, botanists have identified some 40 different species of sea bean found
around the coasts of the British Isles. Sift through the debris along the
high-tide line for long enough, and you鈥檙e bound to find one. You should have no
trouble recognising it. Sea beans are often impressively large, which could
explain why Icelanders traditionally called them 鈥渆agle stones鈥�. They are also
gloriously tactile, and handling them soon creates a glossy, polished sheen.

For centuries, coastal folk have prized these exotic foundlings as good-luck
charms, natural rosary beads or protective talismans during childbirth. The
Mary鈥檚 bean鈥攁 drift seed from Merremia discoidesperma, a 30-metre tropical
liana reminiscent of an enormous bindweed鈥攚as particularly revered in the
Outer Hebrides where it was associated with the Virgin Mary. The seed is black,
shaped rather like a squashed horse chestnut, and has the distinct imprint of a
cross on one side. One beautiful specimen, mounted in silver and worn as a
necklace, is now in the Royal Museum in Edinburgh.

Other sea beans are treasured heirlooms. Two seeds gathered on the Scottish
island of North Uist in the 19th century were still being used as lucky charms
by children taking school exams 100 years later. Others have been transformed
into beautiful objects such as snuff boxes and handy pocket-size containers for
vestas, the forerunners of modern matches. Unbreakable and impossible to
swallow, the beans even make good teethers for babies. Hang one from a string
and it will serve as an excellent door knocker.

This toughness is the secret to their successful seafaring. Nobody knows
quite how long a transatlantic crossing might take, but estimates from
free-floating buoys tracked by satellite suggest that even a speedy sea bean
must journey for some 14 months. Most seeds would be dead within hours, killed
by the salt water, but not sea beans.

At his home in Maryland, amateur naturalist John Dennis has kept specimens
afloat in seawater for 19 years and counting. Charles Darwin did similar
experiments to prove that these drift seeds could use ocean currents to colonise
new islands.

Even after a long ocean journey, sea beans can be coaxed back to life. You
might try growing your own, says botanist Charles Nelson. His unique new field
guide Sea Beans and Nickar Nuts will tell you how. But be warned: you鈥檒l need a
large greenhouse for most of these far-flung specimens. A nickar nut from the
Caribbean will turn into a 2-metre prickly shrub called Caesalpinia bonduc,
while the sea bean or sea heart Entada gigas grows into a rampant liana that can
climb 20 metres into unsuspecting trees. But, as Nelson points out, if it鈥檚
exotic plants you want, there is no better way to get hold of one: straight from
the beach to your garden.

Nelson鈥檚 own fascination for sea beans began 25 years ago, following a chance
encounter in Australia when he was studying for his PhD in plant taxonomy. 鈥淎n
owner of a motel gave me one, and I found a few more. Out of curiosity I started
growing them,鈥� he says.

A few years later, when he was working at the National Botanic Gardens in
Dublin, a man walked in with a coconut he had found on a beach on Ireland鈥檚 west
coast. It had barnacles and sea worms in residence, telltale signs of a long sea
journey. Nelson immediately scoured the published literature looking for earlier
records and was intrigued to discover there were none. No one had ever reported
finding a coconut on an Irish beach. Nelson decided to see what he could find
himself.

After sea-bean expert Dennis visited Ireland, beachcombing became a confirmed
habit for Nelson. Alas, a balmy summer鈥檚 day on England鈥檚 relatively sheltered
south coast is not the best time or place. Winter storms with westerly gales
provide ideal conditions, Nelson advises. And the best places to look outside
Ireland are the Welsh and northern Cornish coasts, and the bracing northern
islands of Scotland鈥攖he Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland鈥攚hich
helps to explain why sea-bean hunting remains a minority pursuit, in Britain at
least.

Not so in Florida, however, where drift seeds arriving from Mexico and the
Caribbean are big business. Local entrepreneur Cathie Katz, author of the Little
Book of Sea Beans, produces a newsletter for enthusiasts called The Drifting
Seed. Never slow to seize a commercial opportunity, Florida tourist shops sell
key rings, necklaces, bracelets and more, all made out of drift seeds, with the
claim that the seeds may bring you luck or at least ward off catastrophe. Now
even theme parks and seaside shops in Britain sell specially imported Entada
seeds as 鈥渓ucky鈥� beans.

It鈥檚 not the same when you don鈥檛 have to search long and hard to find one,
says Nelson. Being able to simply buy one can鈥檛 help but erode the still
lingering sense that these objects are lucky. After all, if you have the good
fortune to find one on a beach, the charm must still be working.