Mary's Bean

'Tis the season (sea-bean season, that is), as Margie Mitchell noted when she sent this photo of a Mary's bean she found a few days ago. As Mary's beans go, this one is huge - Margie says it is the largest one she has ever found. If you watched the sea-bean section of Florida Beach Basics - The Space Coast, you already know that the Mary's bean is also known as the crucifix bean because of the cross indented on both sides. A superstition about these beans is that holding a Mary’s bean during childbirth will make the birth less painful. However, http://www.seabean.com/ reports that Ed Perry gave a Mary's bean to his wife to hold while she was giving birth to their daughter, and that midway through the labor process, she threw it at him!

We admire the Mary's bean in Margie's photo, but don't overlook that beautiful golden sargassum seaweed.

October is usually a good month for finding sea-beans, depending on the storms, the tides, good luck .... That is, of course, why the Sea-Bean Symposium is always held in mid-October. I hope you've already marked your calendar for October 17 and 18, Cocoa Beach Library. Be sure to visit http://www.visitflorida.com/experts/beach_and_surf/ for David McRee's excellent posting about the Symposium.