We ’ve been growing velvet beans ( Mucuna pruriensvar . utilis ) since our old nutrient forest back in Florida ; however , I did n’t come in link with the “ madness noodle ” version – the wild , brutally stinging type ofMucuna pruriens – until we live on the island of Grenada .
The wild soma is also known as “ cowitch , ” andwilldrive you mad .
Our Encounter with Madness Beans
Derek Clawson ’s comment the other day reminded me of my experience with the “ madness bean . ”
“ I did produce the itchy character once … Never ever do that if you have n’t ! It raise buckets of pods but the fibers were almost impossible not to get all over you . It was a nightmare cleaning up that vine from a fence . It itches so badly for 30 plus Taiwanese you ’ll itch your skin off assay to satisfy the irritation . Absolute Inferno . When some guy cable had in the beginning sent the seeds he warn me I ’d never mature it again but I thought it could n’t be that uncollectible . It ’s that bad and I never spring up it again . ”
Back in 2017 I was say by my friend Mike who hold out up the route on the island that there was a patch of bite beans in one of the fields at a low altitude , so I hiked down there to get some :
I think we could use them medicinally , like we had done with our cultivated varieties in the past .
Yet after shoot that TV , my arms itched and stung for more than a day , and that was just from the picayune hair that drifted off the pods I harvested ! We never did do anything with those pods . I did n’t desire to touch them again , even with gloves .
The pain was tormenting , and nothing seems to take that sting out .
Cultivated vs. WildMucuna pruriens
The domesticate form of the madness bean ( Mucuna pruriensvar . utilis ) is still medicinal , as well as being an excellent book binding crop and nitrogen fixer , and it lack almost all of the sting hairs . The pods will sometimes make you a small itchy , but it ’s nothing like the bedevilment of its uncultivated relation .
This spring I design to plant a large surgical incision of the cultivated variety of velvet dome so we can reap seed and perhaps offer it for sales event . It ’s hard to witness in the US , and is expensive when you could find it . We ’ll utilise it as a suppressive ground cover in the solid food woods to build the soil and kill off the grass while adding nitrogen , then see how much cum we terminate up with .
Grow the correct type and it ’s a very useful plant . Grow the wild character and it ’s a daemon . The only place I would ever measuredly imbed the wild stinging shape is at the edge of a property to dissuade trespassers . Otherwise , it ’s just too dangerous .
Happy Monday !
