Drift seed- Prickly Palm

I wasn't sure what these were the first time I found them. I was unsure whether they were a type of drift bean or drift seed. One was polished and shiny while the other was not. "Shiny" was rounded but "Dull" was not.They both had three weird holes on their sides. I've never seen seeds with three holes on the side though. Maybe they are made of plastic and the holes were for lines, like a float. "Dull" had a pointy top crown though that made it look organic. Plus, if they were manufactured then they would have been molded into the same side.

After a little more research, I found these out to be nuts from the prickly palm (Acrocromia sp.). The common name is the corozo palm. Imagine a coconut palm with crazy long spines on the trunk! There isn't a consesus as to what species they are, so I will just leave the name as that. They are apparently drift seeds from tropical Americas and the Carribeans that drift their way around the Gulf of Mexico.

I've only found 3 so far. I don' tthink the prickly palm exists here or on Guam. I wonder if they really drifted from as far away as Central America?The corozo palm nut polishes quite nicely and people in Central America still use them as ornamental beads. I don't think we can find enough around to be of that use.

Ti napu.

The Beachcomber

Fun Guys: Hiking and Caving

Once in a while we will hear from our friend Niko to go on a hike or some other adventure. He and some of his coworkers were supposed to go on a day trip to Tinian but it got cancelled leaving them a rare 3 days off from working at the hospital.

Form left to right: Cecille works at Physical Therapy. Niko works at Medical Telemetry. Laurina works are Pediatrics. RC works at MedTele with Niko.
We met RC via Niko last year and we went on a few outdoors excursions with them until he got hired at the hospital and got too busy with work. I am glad we had another chance to explore nature.

Niko wanted to take RC and Cecille to some Japanese WWII caves in Navy Hill that were built more than 60 years ago as a refuge against the Allied forces. You have to follow a usually dried stream bed and navigate through the slippery limestone forest to get there. The Pierson's shared this hike with us a few years ago, and Dr. Ken was familiar with the place since the Xterra Races go through the caves and the trail as an obstacle.

After a few minutes walking along the stream bed, you'll spot the first opening of the caves on the left. You can see how they were hewn out of the limestone cliff.

There is a lot of room inside but it is pretty dark so you'll have to bring flashlights.

This is our second trip here with Niko. Niko is one of my first friends here on Saipan along with Laurina since I met them together going through nursing school. We all got our nursing degrees from the Northern Mariana College in 2004 and still occasionally hike or hang out together.

We sometimes call these the "crystal caves". They are full of deposited calcite and aragonite that seep through the limestone walls as they are dissolved by rainwater. Limestone is porous and even man-made caves such as these start to develop natural cave features or speleothems (like stalactites and stalagmites) given time. The picture below gives you is a pretty good clue as to how the water and dissolved minerals flow through the roof and down to the walls and floor of the cave.

The crystal formations are beautiful, almost like frosted sugar. The picture bellow illustrates a gorgeous flow stone formation. They are also very delicate so we try our best each time we visit not to destroy or disturb the site. Imagine the Xterra racers going through here though.

Here is RC pointing out soda straws. A soda straw is a speleothem that is a hollow mineral tube of calcium carbonate or sulfate. As each drop of mineral rich water hovers at the tip and a ring of minerals is left at the edge when the water drops. Each drop of water can deposit a little more mineral before dripping, slowly building a tube. Stalagmites or flowstone can also form where the water drops to the cave floor.

A soda straw can turn into a stalactite if the hole at the bottom is blocked, or if the minerals are deposited outside surface of the tube.

Can you see patterns of the water deposit?

Here are some really delicate flow stone features on the cave wall. Amazing and beautiful!

Amazing and beautiful, but this time in the form of my BFF!

We had a little snacking moment outside of the caves after we reached the end. We still had some energy and decided to hike up the trail a little more.

I started finding some seed that I blogged about for one of my projects. This is the source of the sea or drift beans! The round ones are from what the Chamorros call Nonnak (Hernandia sonora), the big round one is called bayogun dankulu (Entada rheedii), and the dark flat ones are bayogun dikike (Mucuna gigantea).

I totally made a mistake on my first blog about sea beans on the identity of the Black Marbles. They are not from the glass eye vine (Oxyrhynchus volubilis). They are from the Nonnak after all! Here are the fleshy pink pericarps on the forest floor.

A Nonnak sapling grows quite readily from the seed on the forest floor. I need to collect some for my native tree planting projects. They are gorgeous trees for landscaping and the bowed trunks were once used for canoe outriggers.

I wanted to explore more since I spotted the woody vines or lianas of the bayogon dankulo.

Laurina spotted this one that can probably support a man's weight! This is what Tarzan probably used to swing from tree to tree.

I didn't see a "monkey ladder" formation though that develops when the vine grows in a spiral or twisty manner. I truly wanted to spot its huge seed pods though.

I was only able to spot parts of the huge pods on the ground. I want a complete one for my personal collection but they are so hard to find!

This is a picture of one from the Thursday Night Street Market that showcases a complete seed pod. This seed pod is a few feet long and you can see the bayogu seeds made into dolls in the display here.

Only fragments were found. I have to search harder for a complete one it seems.

It's interesting how the woody side structures are retained and the middle pods are separately discarded to split up and release the big seeds.

Fungi!

Funguys!

We also found some wild chiles! These are locally known as donne sali (donne means chile and sali is the endemic Micronesian starling or Aplonis opaca) and is a variety of Capsicum annum or domesticated chiles. In the Philippines, we call these types siling labuyo (Labuyo is a jungle fowl) and is reported in both cultures as being very spicy. One day, I'm going to have to see where it really is in the Scoville scale.

I hope the crows and the jungle fowls don't mind us gathering their donne. These will make a deliciously hot marinade after the hike! Who is cooking, guys? Anyone?

I had to let the party go ahead most of the time so that I could explore a little bit more of the place slowly. We were just following the trail back to get to the vehicles. There goes Laurina the Explorer!
Maple leaf-shaped leaves? Big football-like fruits? What is that? I don't know what kind of tree that is? Wow! A mystery tree!

There are whole lot of them here! They look amazing! I've got to figure out what they are!

I thought these seeds were dokduk or the Seeded breadfuit (Artocarpus mariannensis) but they are not! The seeds were all over the forest floor and were readily sprouting. Oh, well. I'll figure it out one day!

On the way out, we saw that the Japanse shrine at Sugar King Park was open- a rare event! We wanted to see if we could ring the bell, but there was a solemn prayer going on inside.

Thanks for suggesting the hike, Niko! Let us go again soo!

Ti napu.

The Beachcomber

Sojourning Seeds

A stranded drifter

How long were you lost at sea

Sea bean on the sand

Sea beans are seeds or fruits that wash into the sea, drift for some time and then get washed ashore. They are also called drift seeds or beans. There are a handful of different kinds that you can find on Saipan that usually wash up on the eastern beaches. I am still trying to figure our if it is sustainable to include see beans for my project. The above picture is that of a kukui nut (Aleurites moluccana) which I originally thought drifted from Hawaii. I've been finding quite a bit of them lately.

SEA HEARTS (OR MONKEY LADDER BEANS)
The sea heart (Entada gigas) is a well known sea bean because of its curious shape, big size, and high polish. The ones I've found are dark brown and have a very hard covering making them appear like wood carved hearts. Sea heart vines are lianas (woody, long-stemmed and rooted on the ground). Parts of the thick vines grow ribbon-like and this prompted the common name, monkey ladder vine. I haven't seen these vines growing on Saipan. It would be interesting to find since they own the record for bearing the largest seed pods (over 5 ft. or 1.5m).
Another monkey ladder vine is the snuff box bean (E. rheedii) since the hard seed covering was used as snuff boxes. In Chamorro it is called, bayogon dankulo (kneecap, big) and the seeds are reddish brown, almost rectangular in shape and are supposedly poisonous. The leaves and stems are used in traditional medicine. Its synonym is E. pursaetha and another common name is the African dream herb since its leaves are dried and smoked there supposedly to induce vivid dreams.

LITTLE MARBLES
I do not have a lot of information about this beautiful marble-like seed. They are also called glass eye vine (Oxyrhynchus volubilis). I usually find them covered in a beige, corky layer that need to be scrapped off to reveal the shiny black to dark brown seeds.

SEA PURSES
The sea purses we mostly see here are Dioclea wilsonii. They somewhat resemble our local bayogo (Mucuna gigantea) but are generally bigger and the hilum (where the seed attached to the seed pod) has a bright yellow border.

Does it look like a tiny purse? See the yellow border of the hilum?
Most sea purses I've found are reddish brown but this one (my favorite amongst) is mottled in color. I still need to clean this one up since it had goose barnacles (Lepas sp.) attached to it (white specks).

BURNEY BEAN
Burney in Old English means "island brook". We know these seeds locally as bayogon dikike (pronounce the y sound as a z) which literally means "knee cap small". Most of the ones I've collected are from the vine. They range in color from light to dark brown or mottled with black like the ones below. These seeds are the basis of the bayogo (bojobo) doll industry, seed leis and are extensively collected in the Mariana Islands. Like bayogon dankulu it is used in traditional medicine. Scientifically it is called Mucuna gigantea and like most of its family members, their seed pods have stinging hairs (trichomes) so you have to be careful collecting them. More on this on another post!
BROWN HAMBURGER BEAN
Hamburger beans (Mucuna sloanei) are a joy to find washed up on the beach. They are smaller in diameter and rounder than sea purses. The surface of the seed is polished but rough and the hilum is thick and dark.
Does this really look like a hamburger?
CANDLENUT
I was first made familiar with the kukui or candlenut (Aleurites molucanna) out of Hawaii's seed leis so I thought these were mainly from Polynesia. I now know that they are native in Asia and they even grow as close to us as Pohnpei. Maybe that's why they are pretty common drift seeds here. They polish quite nicely and I may have enough to put together for an authentic seed lei. Problem is if the seed inside is rotten, it is oily and pretty stinky so I will have to find a way to remedy those two problems. I haven't had much luck locating trees on Guam nor here on Saipan.
That's a nice shine! The seeds really take a good polish. Also, the oil inside the seed really does burn like a candle.

MARY'S or CRUCIFIX BEAN

Finding Mary's bean (Merremia discoidesperma) this past weekend was quite a surprise! This drift bean holds the record of having the longest drift of 15,000 miles (24,000 km). Sure other sea beans can stay buoyant longer potentially drifting father, but where they originally came from is hard to determine. Mary's bean has a limited range growing only in Mexico and Central America though.

Mary's bean has been found as far up north as Norway. If the record distance was set by beans found in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (Bikini and Wotho Atolls) then we may have a record breaker in our hands! Old Man by the Sea, Saipan, CNMI is farther than the RMI!
Because of the cross-like indentation on the "top" side of the bean, it has religious significance to some people. It is named after Mary, the mother of Christ and is also known as the Crucifixion or Crucifix bean. It is supposed to be good luck to carry one and women in labor carry them to ease the pain. Some of these are heirlooms being passed from one generation to the next.This is the record breaker's "bottom" showing the hilum, the scar where it once attached to its fruit.
GRAY NICKARBEANS OR NICKARNUTS

I love the unique look of the Gray nickarbeans (Caelsalpinia bonduc). They look like small gray eggs with parallel fracture lines. Nicker is a Jamaican word that came from the Dutch knickker, a baked clay marble. The Chamorros however locally call them, pakao. They are used in traditional medicine. Incidentally, bonduc came from the Tagalog word for mountain, bundok. Boondocks is also a Western derivative that means backwoods or out of way place.

I finally found some Gray nickarbean vines. They are pretty spiny which led to another common name, wait-a-bit vine. I am going to have to return to the spot see when they flower and bear fruits.
SCREWPINE
These aren't seed but are part of the woody part of the screwpine (Pandanus tectorius) fruit. I've used screwpine leaves for cordage but these specimens are so pretty that it looks easy to craft them into things. These are lightly sanded and once coated with tung oil. My BFF, Laurina, thinks they look kind of spooky because the holes look like the eyes and mouth of the grim reaper. I don't see it but do you?
This one is probably from a different Pandanus species that I've yet to identify. It's probably not from here since we really only have 2 species locally. It is pretty nonetheless!
I have found other interesting drift seeds and sea beans to share later. I finally identified a pretty weird looking black seed that felt and looked like a plastic ball. It turned out to be palm nuts from a species of prickly palm trees (Acrocomia mexicana) that grown in South America and West Indies. I didn't have any picture so I will have to share later.Hope you liked my stories. Check this and this which are other sites that are chock full of information on sea beans and drift seeds.

Ti napu.

The Beachcomber

P.S. I misidentified the Little marbles and you can read about their true identity here.