Macropsychanthus comosus

Macropsychanthus comosus is a stout, high-climbing woody liana of the family Fabaceae (tribe Diocleae), with twining stems that scramble through the canopy of wet tropical forest. It was formerly known as Dioclea reflexa and is widely called sea bean, marble vine or horse-eye bean for its large, hard, glossy seeds that are often dispersed by ocean currents as drift-seeds. The leaves are alternate and trifoliolate with broad, leathery leaflets. The pea-like flowers are borne in dense, elongate racemes and are typically purple to violet. The fruit is a large, woody, oblong pod containing one to several lens-shaped seeds marked with a long encircling hilum; the seeds contain the defensive amino acid L-canavanine. Its native range extends from Mexico through tropical America and into West and Central tropical Africa, where it occurs in lowland rainforest, riverbanks and coastal thickets.