We were boating a few weeks ago in October and I stopped to walk the beach I frequent whenever we are out on the water. It was high tide – or close to it – so it wasn’t a good time to beach-comb, but I did see some interesting bean vines. Please leave a comment if you know what these are! (Photos below)
One day I will gather my greenery photographs and try to identify some of the interesting things I’ve seen growing on the uninhabited islands we visit. This will be a daunting task for me because I know very little about the local sea plants. I’m guessing that the vine below growing into the water is some type of Purslane.
Just for fun I took another photo of a hermit crab – because I don’t see enough of those… hahaha….! This one is just under the water at the shoreline and he is carrying a blackened pear whelk on his back. Although the water is very clean right at the sand line, it’s murky and dark a few feet out. You can see this clearly in my last photo on this post.
I took my beach shoes off and walked barefoot in water about up to my knees as I strolled the shoreline. That wasn’t a really smart thing to do because of the trash people leave behind, but I walked slowly searching for treasures. There wasn’t much new to find, but this thick clamshell caught my eye. It stood out among all the tiny shells that make up the beach.
I picked up a chunk of shells and sand just because it was different. Maybe it’s a piece of coquina rock. I strolled north along the beach slowly so as not to miss a good shell. In the past I had found two olive shells in this spot. Today I found no exciting shells.
Then I came across the beans.
The island has a lot of growth with shrubs, palm trees and sea vines and such. Camping is allowed here so there is trash as well. People can be pigs. But as I got closer to the end of the island I found this cool bean vine. You can see it hanging from the tree below.
The vine was growing within a shrub, which may or may not be some type of mangrove. I tried to research this tree with the clumps of flowers (it looks a bit like a viburnum to me) but found nothing about mangroves with clumps of flowers. I also could not identify this vine.
As you can see, the vine has rounded leaves with wide bean pods hanging from it. I mean some of these pods were big! I have seen plenty of the long pods that grow in the red Mangroves and they are very long, but super thin. I have never come across these wide pods before but I’m sure they are not part of any mangrove. It’s a vine, not a tree.
Curiosity had me wondering what was inside this pod, but I dislike messing with nature, and especially when I have no idea what I am dealing with. So I just took photos.
Next time we go boating I will stop by the island and see how this vine looks and get better photos of the shrubs. I would love for someone with knowledge to respond here.
