Hi. I haven't seen you around for a while. I hope all is well. I have no idea if that's a black jade or not. It looks a bit different then most of the pics I saw online but regardless it's very pretty.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mucuna nigricans

Hi Karen :) Yeah I was sick the last part of the summer and some of the fall. I am finally able to give my poor garden some of the attention it desperately needs. I went out there and it was a huge jungle. Thank goodness the kids and dh actually watered it once in a while and we had rain. Finally getting back to posting again:)

Its wierd the mucuna doesn't look like some of the other photos I've seen, including the photo on the place I bought the seeds lol. Some of them are up to a foot long and a few have been short and fat kinda like the other pics but mostly long. I have a feeling this one could be invasive in my climate since between the mucuna nigricans and the strictocardia took over an iron trellis and rooted into the ground in several spots until they eventually pulled it over! The good thing, I guess, is that I didn't have to wait for it to flower...I'm still waiting on the green and red jade vines to flower from a few yrs ago.

I think bihai nailed it. I found a wikipedia link and the pic looks the same. It does have some interesting pharmacological properties. If you get any seeds would you be interested in a trade? If I start it early in the greenhouse I can treat it as an annual here. I can see if I have anything that you want and don't already have. I ended up giving my Strongylodon macrobotrys away after a couple years. I just didn't have the space and it wasn't thriving. I'd love to be able to grow the green and red jades but unless I relocate to a tropical zone it's just not happening : (

Here is a link that might be useful: velvet bean

Thanks bihai for your expertise! I wonder if you got your seeds from the same place in FL as I did that was advertising them as M.nigricans? Ah well least I can put a name to it now. I saw some seeds of M. nigricans on ebay for around 14.00 wonder if those were the same thing (M.Puriens) of if they were M.nigricans? Glad I didn't buy those.

I looked at the link Karyn, and it does look the same. The seed looks exactly like the ones I planted as well. I have some seedpods developing but they don't look that hairy yet but then they aren't mature either. I'd say they are about halfway mature. Would love to trade with you:) I plan to move it somewhere when it freezes to let the pods finish maturing.
It sure does have some interesting 'uses' aphrodisiac..and itching powder...LOL, I hope my boys don't find out about that they will be trying to strip the hairs off the pods to make itching powder !! I told dh about the itching powder and he said, Cool! I swear he's worse than a kid sometimes :P
~Lenette

Haha look at the link I just found, lol Moooove over Viagra and Enzyte!

Here is a link that might be useful: Mucuna pruriens

No, I didn't grow mine from seed. I made a trade specifically for the M. pruriens, it was already an established vine.

I am also growing M. nigricans, which I also got as an established plant from someone who has them physically growing and blooming so they were certain it was M. nigricans.

The plants are physically noticeably different as far as leaf size and shape.

Cool. I hope you will post some photos of your M. nigricans when it blooms and let us know how it does in FL and its habits etc.

The pruriens I bet could be invasive if it didn't totally freeze and kill the roots. I have two M. pruriens vines: one is in the ground and the other in a pot but grew through the holes and into the ground anyways. The potted one bloomed and it is the one with the seed pods. The one next to it, in the ground, has not bloomed but is trying to take over the trellis from the potted one and the strictocardia. I am leaving the one in the ground out over the winter to see if it will come back in the spring.

I have read that M. nigricans has been hardy in zone 7B in Texas. I do not know if this is true. It seems unlikely. But I know it has made it through frosts and freezing weather in the Orlando area.
M. pruriens may well be hardy in zone 8. I am going to plant some of my seeds and get some vines to trial next season.

I trialed Thunbergia coccinea and it is blooming right now outdoors. It has frozen back 2 seasons and always came back like gangbusters. Some of these vines, you cannot tell with. They may be hardier than we think.