Richard Buckman from Montreal found his first seaheart on a beach in 1989. Years later he began selling them at trade shows and eventually in 1997 on line at www.seaheart.com

Mr Seaheart is the handle used on YouTube to showcase various videos of sea heart lore and legend and a few laughs too.

Mr Seaheart Channel, Mr Sea Heart Youtube

The enormous Legume Family (Fabaceae) contains many species of tropical vines, but some of the most interesting belong to the genus Mucuna. There are many species of Mucuna throughout tropical regions of the world, including M. urens, M. pruriens and M. sloanei. Most species of Mucuna are climbing woody vines called lianas that twine through the rain forest trees like "botanical boa constrictors." Their bat-pollinated flowers and pods are produced on long, rope-like stems that hang from the forest canopy. The seed pods are covered with microscopic velvety hairs (called trichomes) that can be extremely painful if they get into your eyes. In the Caribbean region and Central America, the hairs were stirred into honey or syrup as a remedy to dispel intestinal parasites. The dense covering of irritating hairs may help to discourage seed predators, particularly when the seeds are soft and vulnerable. At maturity, each pod produces several hard, marble-like seeds. The seed is called "ojo de buey" because of its striking resemblance to the eye of a bull. The seeds are also known as "sea beans," because they are commonly carried by rivers into the ocean. The closely-related genus Dioclea includes woody vines which also produce seeds called sea beans. The pods of Dioclea generally do not have the stinging trichomes. The seeds of both genera are commonly polished and made into seed necklaces.

Mucuna Sloanei, Mucuna Urens, True Sea Beans, Horse Eyes, Fawcettii

The Entada Rheedii is similar to the Entada Gigas vine. The seeds tend to be more box like then the heart shaped Entada Gigas seeds. The pods of the Entada Rheedii pods are quite straight and uniformed pod compartments, where as the Entada Gigas ( sea heart vine) the pods turn and twist making irregular pod compartments.

The embryo of the Entada Rheedhii seed is used for medicinal uses involving poultices, potions, salves, tonics, teas and tobacco made from the white inside of this seed. 

The seed flesh is very bitter and it is wise to soak it for 2 weeks in water, changing the water everyday for fresh water until the seed water is more clear and does not smell.

The enlargened swollen seed is then parched on a low heat til it is dry, and then used as a tobacco and smoked, or ingested and made into a coffee type substitute with a tablespoon and hot water per cup. It is believed that consumption before bedtime help induce vivid dreaming and connection to the spirit world.

​

African Dream seed, Dream beans, African Lucid Dream Enhancer

This is the largest nut and drift seed in the world. The coco de mer is what legends are made from!

You have to google coco de mer by images to really appreciate this sexy seed.

Captain Cooke believed he had found the garden of Eden as there are womens buttocks hanging in the trees!

This giant seed is government regulated and grown on just a few islands in the world.

Commonly known as the sea coconut, coco de mer, or double coconut, it is a monotypic genus in the palm family. The sole species, Lodoicea maldivica, is endemic to the islands of Praslin and Curieuse in the Seychelles. It formerly also was found on the small islets of St Pierre, Chauve-Souris and Ile Ronde (Round Island), all located near Praslin, but had become extinct there for a time until recently reintroduced. The name of the genus, Lodoicea, is derived from Lodoicus, the Latinised form of Louis, in honor of King Louis XV of France.

Formerly Lodoicea was known as Maldive coconut. Its scientific name, Lodoicea maldivica, originated before the 18th century when the Seychelles were uninhabited. In centuries past the coconuts that fell from the trees and ended up in the sea would be carried away eastwards by the prevailing sea currents. The nuts can only float after the germination process, when they are hollow. In this way many drifted to the Maldives where they were gathered from the beaches and valued as an important trade and medicinal item.

This association is reflected in one of the plant's archaic botanical names, Lodoicea callipyge Comm. ex J. St.-Hil., in which callipyge is from Greek words meaning 'beautiful buttocks'. Other botanical names used in the past include Lodoicea sechellarum Labill. and Lodoicea sonneratii (Giseke) Baill.

Until the true source of the nut was discovered in 1768 by Dufresne, it was believed by many to grow on a mythical tree at the bottom of the sea. European nobles in the sixteenth century would often have the shells of these nuts polished and decorated with valuable jewels as collectibles for their private galleries. The coco de mer tree is now a rare and protected species.

It is polished, hollowed out and made into boxes, and curios that when adorned and poluished can sell for thousands of dollars. In fact the market price for a single natural seed begins around $500.

sea coco nut, love nut, double coconut, coco fesse, Seychelles nut.

Sea Purses are one of the more rare sea beans found when beach combing the "wrack".

These little purse shaped drift seeds come in a range of colors from light brown to almost black..

They have a helium band that wraps around like the zipper opening to a change purse.

Turn it one way it looks like like a change purse about to  spill out some miniature coins.

Turn it upside down ( like the beans from Australia) and it looks like a horse saddle.

Sea Bean Purse, Saddle Seeds.

The monkey Ladder vine or sea Heart vines are a fast growing invasive woody vine of the Entada Gigas species. It is from the pea and bean family, and like the fabled "Jack and his Bean stock", this fast growing liane can reach magnificent heights in miracle time.

Growing at a rate of 3-6 inches a day, the vines can reach over 100 feet into the tops of the trees in a year. at its base the trunk of the vine can grow as thick as a mans waist! As the vine climbs skyward it  clings and spreads to branches of neighboring trees and creates an arboreal network of vine pathways for insect and animals to traverse the jungle canopy.

The Monkey Ladder vine also produce the worlds longest Legumes or Beans!

Twisting in an hour glass shape, the giant 12 foot long bean pods grow in compartment like sections that house a single sea heart seed in each pod compartment.

Large bean pods can house a dozen or more sea hearts. The pod segments have a multiple layers of paper like skin protection. Safely hidden inside natural envelopes like presents in a gift wrap..are the brown pearls...the Sea hearts.

In the fall and rainy season the green pods dry and turn brown and brittle and separate along their cord like spine, dropping pod sections and scattering sea heart seeds on the forest floor.

Sea Heart Liane, Entada Rheedii, Entada Gigas vine

The True Sea Bean often called Hamburger Beans, Horse Eye, Ojo de Buey are common and sought after among sea bean collectors. They make excellent beads for jewelry and are sometimes used by children to tease and burn their friends by rubbing the sea bean briskly on a cloth or hard surface, and quickly touch the skin, and the sea bean will BURN you! Be very careful, as innocent as this sounds, they really burn and leave a painful mark on the skin. The seeds grow in pods, just a few seeds per pod, and they float for years like sea hearts.

Hamburger bean, Horse Eye, Mucuna,

Another name for the Caesalpinia bonduc seed Nickernut or Nickarnut:

With Nick being a Jamaican word  for" Throwing dice" - ie; game piece
Nickar seems to have come from the Dutch word 'knikker', which was a boy's baked clay marble."

The seeds are used for jewelry and medicine but most often are recognized from ancient and still popular board games and versions of the strategy game Mancala.

Other board games using Nickarnuts as playing pieces are Oware, Kalah, Fanorona and Butterfly.
 

Grey Nickarnut, Yellow Nickernut

The Sea Heart is the most prized of the Sea Beans, and its popularity derives from its unique individual characteristics of size, shape, beauty, texture, and personality! The Sea heart is used primarily as a Talisman for Good Luck, and its used in jewelry, playing games, medicine, spiritual and metaphysical uses too.

Sea hearts are the seed that grow inside giant 12 foot long bean pods from a fast growing woody vine Entada Gigas. The most prized sea hearts are polished to perfection and sold on this website as Sea Heart Key chains, talismans and Heart Necklace Pendants.

Entada Rheedii, Snuff Box bean, Match Box seed, Cacoon, African Dream Seed