Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • (Bot.) Same as florida bean.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A drift seed, a drift fruit.
  • noun Salicornia glasswort, when considered as food.

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  • (n): any of a diverse variety of fruits, seeds or disseminules of land plants that find their way into the world's oceans and ride currents for months or years before washing up on distant beaches and coastlines.

    Many originate in distant tropical climates and are therefore strikingly foreign to those who find them among the wrack. Many of these tropical drift fruits and seeds are specialized for aquatic dispersal, variously possessing hard, oily, or impervious coverings to protect the embryo from salt or becoming waterlogged, and/or corky rinds and tissues, or internal cavities filled with air or resins of low specific gravity to provide for extended flotation. Sea beans have been collected and studied since medieval times.

    January 1, 2009