My bet is that it's a mutation. My understanding is that color mutations are relatively common in beans. I also bet it would breed true. You're right about how it feels to plant a single unique bean seed. I've done it and lost it. But sometimes it works out. Bet it will taste just exactly the same as the Yellow Eye.

George
Tahlequah, OK

It looks like a "soldier bean " or it could be a crossbred bean . grow it see what you get!

I agree with Macmex; the seed pattern appears identical, only the color is different. It is most likely a color mutation.

But since this is "store bought", and commercial growers are less concerned with seed purity, the possibility of a cross does exist.

Either way, it's worth growing, to see if the variation will breed true.

Getting ready for another batch of baked beans, I found more odd ones. Three this time.

Two of these could easily be written off as beans which bounced into the wrong bin at the processing plant. However, after finding that previous oddball, I'm not so quick to draw that conclusion. I now think that crosses or mutations may show up quite regularly in these beans.

The third oddball looks suspiciously like another possible mutation similar to the black and white one. It looks purple and white doesn't it? I was quite excited to see it. But, on close inspection, the color looks less like purple and more like a dark version of the yellow eyes. Still, it might be a new color variation.

By next planting season, I should have a lot of mystery beans to experiment with.

Jim

That right hand bean is surely a pinto bean. The solid maroon could be a mutation. Do they sell Lowe's Champion where you live? It looks like that. The maroon and red bean indeed looks to me like a mutation of the yellow eye.

George

This oddity (cross? mutation?) appeared in a growout of "Black Coat" runner beans.

I rogued out another impurity (wrong flower color) from the same planting earlier in the year, so crossing is the most likely explanation. The color in this photo is not the greatest; the beans are a deep orchid purple. I would love for this color to breed true... probably too much to hope for, but I'll try to isolate it next year.

Jimster, the first mutation looks like an Orca, in color if not pattern, and the second photo looks like you got a pinto and a kidney mixed in. Not so bad in cooking beans but I just recently got a kidney and a pinto mixed in when I bought a packet of seed beans!

I thought it looked just like Orca. There are two possible explanations I can think of. Either it is an Orca which got mixed with the Yellow Eyes or Yellow Eyes have a tendency toward that sort of mutation. I don't believe it's the first because Orcas aren't sold in this region and I don't think they are grown and processed in the same region as Yellow Eyes. I could be wrong in that assumption though. It's based on the knowledge that Yellow Eyes are Grown in Maine (but possibly elsewhere as well) and Orcas are not, so far as I know.

I will plant my single "Orca" seed as an experiement and probably the reddish form too. I'm not interested in growing Pintos. They're too easy to get from the store.

Jim

Those orchid colored beans sure are purty!