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Mucuna gigantea
Also called Burny bean, Black Bean, Velvet Bean
Seabean is a large woody twining climber from the pea family, growing up to about 30 m in tropical coastal and forest habitats. It needs warm, humid conditions and ample space, and it is rarely grown as a houseplant.
Mucuna gigantea, commonly known as burny bean, burney bean, velvet bean or sea bean is a species of liana from the legume family Fabaceae. Its natural range roughly follows the perimeter of the Indian Ocean and includes Africa, India, Malesia, New Guinea and northern Australia. Many parts of the plant—in particular the new growth, flowers and fruit—are covered in fine irritant hairs.
Mucuna gigantea occurs in tropical Africa, southwestern and southern Asia, and Oceania. In Africa its range extends from the Republic of Congo to Kenya, Tanzania and Madagascar. In Asia, its range includes India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. In Oceania it is found in New Guinea, the states of Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales in Australia, and numerous Pacific islands.
After suitable preparation, the seeds are eaten in Kenya and India. Aboriginal Australians bake them on hot stones, and having removed the skin, grind them into flour, mix this with water, wrap the dough in leaves and further bake it. An extract of the root has been used against schistosomiasis and gonorrhea, and the powdered seeds have been used as a laxative. The intensely irritating hairs from the pods have been used as poison in Malaysia, and have been mixed with food for control of rats.
New Guinea Creeper · Mucuna bracteata · Mucuna flagellipes · Hamburger Bean · Mucuna interrupta · Mucuna monosperma · Mucuna paniculata · Cowitch · Mucuna sanjappae · Oxeye bean · Mucunas
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mucuna gigantea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
