The 2014 Little Easy Bean Network - Get New Beans On The Cheap

[baymule]

@Pulsegleaner A black eyed red skinned pea? Good question. I've never seen one either, but I am nowhere near the bean/pea expert here! Peas/cowpeas/beans-they're all good!

There is no bone of contention, it is all a big joke between us pea heads, so don't worry about the distinction. Call them whatever you want, I just make jokes about it, that's all. I make fun of myself being a redneck southerner and I don't mind being made fun of, we're all good here.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Now, now, you WAAY to intelligent to be referred to as a "pea head"

It's all just terminological variances. No one ever sat down and said "we will call this this, whenever it occurs) On your kind of peas, if the seeds are close together and press up against each other making flat ends, they call it a crowder pea. On mine they call it a chenille or caterpillar. If a common bean has a light colored seedcoat with dark red streaks and mottles they call it "horticultural pattern" (at least I think they do; that seems to be what Bluejay likes to call them). I don't know what they call it for your kind of peas, but when it happens on mine (say, on Carlin peas) it's called marmoration officially (though, because of the appearance of them and out of force of habit from before I knew the real term I still sometimes refer to them as "camo peas") And on corn, it's stippling. When I talk about the rice beans I have to make sure they know I'm referring to the Asian kind of rice bean, not the small common bean of Europe.

 

[Sam BigDeer]

Oh and for those more familiar with peas, is there such a thing as a black eyed red skinned pea? I don't think I've ever seen one but there should be one (I've got ones that are black on black, so it's not like the eye is genetically bound to a white coat)

=============================================
In answer to PULSEGLEANER's question as to the existence of a 'black eyed red skinned pea', YES! ! !
Yes, there is; there is one, Abrus precatorius, some common names are: Rosary Pea,, Jequirity Bean, Crab's Eye, and a few other names (common)... Follow this link to http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54030/ and read it thoroughly, the information there could very possibly save someone's LIFE!! This little jewel is HIGHLY TOXIC!!!
Thanks for listening/reading...
Sam

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Oh I know all about Abrus precatorius . In fact one of my scariest stories of my finds is about it Last year, I found one sitting in the middle of a bag of senna in an herb shop, i.e. it was in a bag of something people actually are supposed to eat (ok make into a tea and drink but same idea).

Of course it isn't really black eyed more red and black yin/yanged. I supposed in a certain sense you could called the false rosary pea, Rhynchosia phraseolides, eyed; since the division between the red and the black runs the other way. But it's a litter far down the seed to really be an eye, and we were really talking about Vigna ungiculata.
Oh and if the above doesn't scare you, there is such a thing as rosary peas which are solid white so they aren't that obvios (though RP's are quite a bit smaller and rather more glossy than most common beans you will bump into.

 

[journey11]

I like those gold of bacau a lot because they don't even need to be cooked to eat them.

Yep, got the internet fixed, but still no working generator. On solar panels only, here in the woods, so my time online is limited.

Journey, did you grow those powder stars? How'd they do for you? Pretty sure they are an appalachian type of bean. Photos?

I put in two separate plantings of Powder Stars. One has young beans on it now and the other is getting ready to bloom. They are such vigorous climbers and are extremely healthy...not a bit of rust on them, even though several others of my beans do have it. I can't wait to taste them. I'll have plenty to spare for a meal or two in addition to saving seed.

I'll get some photos of them here soon!

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Hal, then that makes it all the more important to save this variety! I'll do my best to distribute it through places other than online forums.

Australian dollar? Good to know, I was expecting to be called something different.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

And yes, my southern peas (how's that?) - while not as viney as baymule's - are doing great. I'll have to get some pictures to post.

About yellow flowering southern peas - is it possible that there are some wild/ semi-domesticated relatives out there that have yellow flowers?

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Well, as I said yellow is the norm for adzukis, mungs, urds and rice beans (and probably mothe too), which are on the other side of the Vigna genus. But some (or all) of those can also flower in pink or white, so there is some variance.
I also think we may be jumping to conclusions. Looking over some online photos of Southern pea flowers, it is actually pretty common for them to look yellowish from the back. They don't color up until they actually OPEN (i.e. the petals are not exactly the same color on the surface that faces the air when the flower is open versus the side that faces the stem.
Actually I just realized I answered my own question in the original message! I followed up my question about the yellow flowers with the stamen that most of mine were either blue or yellow and purple! So OF COURSE I have seen yellow flowered southern peas. If they are anything like mine the stardards (which is all you would see in this case with the flowers closed) are yellowish (sort of buttermilk color) and the keels will be purply-pink.
I suppose the best thing is to wait until baymule is back on this thread later. HE grew the plants to HE should be able to tell us what color the flowers are, maybe. Most southern peas only open their flowers in the morning, if it is cool (they're capable of selfing so it isn't at all unusual for a flower to never actually open, the petals just slough off and leave the incipient pod) so I suppose it depends on how early baymule gets up.

 

[baymule]

=============================================
In answer to PULSEGLEANER's question as to the existence of a 'black eyed red skinned pea', YES! ! !
Yes, there is; there is one, Abrus precatorius, some common names are: Rosary Pea,, Jequirity Bean, Crab's Eye, and a few other names (common)... Follow this link to http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54030/ and read it thoroughly, the information there could very possibly save someone's LIFE!! This little jewel is HIGHLY TOXIC!!!
Thanks for listening/reading...
Sam

Good grief! These things are dangerous! Why would anybody plant these on purpose? I never knew about them Sam BigDeer, thanks for posting this.

@TheSeedObsesser and @Pulsegleaner ya'll are killin' me!
SOUTHERN PEAS???

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Good grief! These things are dangerous! Why would anybody plant these on purpose?

Jewelry; mostly. Because they are so colorful and shiny, they have always been (and still are) very popular for making beads (hence the "rosary" part of the common name) though this is a very, very bad idea. The seed coat on a mature RP is actually quite hard and impermeable, so much so that, even though one bean contains enough abrin to kill many, many elephants if you were to swallow a mature one, you probably would be OK since it would in all likelihood pass through your system unbreached. But if you drill holes in them....... Nonetheless they are still used as beads with great frequency. There is a jewelry seller who often shows up at the local rock and mineral show who specializes in stuff made in Southeast Asia and her stock contains a lot of necklaces with drilled RP seeds, along with other somewhat less toxic (but still very poisonous) seeds like Coral beans (Erythrina sp.) Oxen's red eye (Mucuna bennetti) and the seeds of the ladybug tree (Ormosia sp.). And there is a conductor who is sometimes on the train I take into the city on Wed.'s who wears a cuff of the things (someday, I'm going to have to get up the courage to actually tell him he probably shouldn't, if I see him)
The seeds have some other uses. They are very, very consistent in both size and weight, so in a lot of parts of Asia (most notably India) they are the standard method of weighing out units of gold, similar to how ancient jewelers used to measure the weight of gems in carob seeds (from which we get the word "carat"). Crushed they make a kind of glue that is used to hold pieces of gold together for melting while fabricating (again not something I'd do) On the darker side, I have heard that they used to be a pretty popular murder weapon there as well (in the days before poison detection methods were really all that good, or even extant). Abrin is soluble in water and when the water evaporates, it tends to crystalize in needle shapes crystals. According to what I have read, these needles were a popular method of murder since being stuck with one hurts about as much as an ant bite (regular, not fire ant) and the symptoms of abrin poisoning are supposed to look a lot like heart failure.
Even the plant has some interest, as it supposedly closes down when the pressures drop before a storm (hence another name for it, barometer vine)
As far as I know, seed is still perfectly legal to buy and sell (at least I was when I bought the sample I use for reference, but that was almost 20 years ago) at least here (I think I may have heard something about it being restricted in some European, though I think the restriction was more along the lines of not selling jewelry made from the seeds without disclosing the dangers, the same way there is now a warning on the packet if you buy castor beans.)