A red bean with a black spot is a lucky bean!

‘Lucky beans’ are beautiful, small shiny red seeds with a black spot that come from Erythrina Lysistemon - Lucky Bean trees.

I was born in Zimbabwe where these amazing trees grow and I have happy memories of discovering these lovely little beans in their pods, collecting and treasuring them and turning them into jewellery.

Erythrina Lysistemon are more that just beautiful decorative trees, they are an important component of their ecosystem providing food and shelter for a wide range of birds, animals and insects. They are planted as living fences around kraals, homesteads and waterholes.

Regarded as royal trees, they were planted on the graves of Zulu chiefs and the flowering of the trees is a good signal to the people that it is time to plant their crops.

Erythrina Lysistemon is thought, by many, to have both medicinal and magical properties and the seeds are often used as lucky charms or in amulets to give protection against evil, danger, or disease.

*Much of the above information is my summary of a greater amount of details provided by PlantZAfrica on their website and can be read at http://pza.sanbi.org/erythrina-lysistemon