What is a Sea Bean?

If you’ve strolled along the beaches of Southwest Florida, you might have spotted something that looks a little out of place among the shells and driftwood: a hard, round, grayish seed pod known as a sea bean. These mysterious little travelers have a story that stretches across oceans, carried by currents until they wash ashore on our coasts.

Gray Nicker Nuts – The Common Sea Bean of SW Florida

The sea beans most often found on Southwest Florida beaches are Gray Nicker Nuts (Caesalpinia bonduc). Despite the name, they aren’t actually “nuts” but the seeds of a sprawling tropical vine. These vines grow in coastal thickets, often with thorny stems, and produce large, woody pods. Inside those pods are the smooth, gray seeds we know as nicker nuts.

Nicker nuts are designed by nature to travel. With their tough, water-resistant coating, they can float in the ocean for months or even years without losing their ability to sprout. While they are native to the Caribbean, Central and South America, and even parts of Africa, ocean currents carry them to Florida’s beaches. Here in the Ten Thousand Islands and along the shore of Naples and Marco Island, gray nicker nuts are the most common sea beans you’ll find nestled in the wrack line among seaweed, mangrove propagules, and driftwood.

Historically, nicker nuts were used as marbles or game pieces in various cultures (the word “nicker” even comes from an old English word for marble). They’ve also been carried as good-luck charms, and some people still polish them for use in jewelry or as pocket keepsakes.

Gray Nicker Nut Seeds

Other Sea Beans Found in Florida

While gray nicker nuts are the regular visitors on our coast, Florida’s beaches are known for turning up a variety of sea beans. Each one has its own journey and story:

• Sea Hearts (Entada gigas) – Large, shiny, dark brown seeds shaped like hearts. They come from massive pods of tropical vines that grow in the rainforests of Central and South America. Sea hearts are among the most prized finds and are sometimes called “lucky beans.”

• Hamburger Beans (Mucuna species) – Shaped and colored like little hamburgers, these brown-and-tan seeds are distinctive and easy to identify. They often drift across the Atlantic from the Caribbean or Central America.

• Sea Purses (Dioclea reflexa) – Flat and leathery in appearance, these seeds resemble little purses. They typically originate from Africa or South America before drifting to our shores.

• Horse Eye Beans (Mucuna sloanei) – Rounded, chestnut-brown seeds with a lighter “eye” mark. They’re a bit larger than nicker nuts and often polished for jewelry.

While some of these beans are more common along the Atlantic side of Florida, especially the beaches influenced by strong Gulf Stream currents, every now and then they appear on Gulf Coast beaches too, a testament to just how far seeds can travel on the ocean’s highways.

Why Sea Beans Are Special

Sea beans remind us that the ocean connects distant places. A single seed that fell from a pod in the Amazon might spend months bobbing in waves before landing in the sand on a Florida beach, ready for a curious sheller to pick up. Collecting them isn’t just fun, it’s like holding a little piece of the world’s tropical forests in your hand.

So next time you’re out shelling, keep an eye out for these smooth, gray, or glossy treasures. Whether it’s a humble nicker nut or a rare sea heart, every sea bean has traveled an incredible journey to end up at your feet.

If you’d like to own a piece of the ocean’s story, I offer nickernut sea beans self-collected right here in Southwest Florida. You can find them in my shop!

Hamburger Sea Bean stands out among the Gray Sea Pearls

Heart Sea Beans are incredibly rare finds in SWFL