Mucuna Pruriens, Velvet Bean - 0.5 kg Seeds

Velvet Bean or Kapikacchu, Mucuna pruriens, is a fast-growing annual leguminous climber best known as a medicinal and green-manure crop. Found wild and cultivated throughout tropical India, it scrambles over fences and shrubs and bears drooping clusters of dark purple flowers followed by velvety pods covered in irritant hairs. The seeds are an important Ayurvedic drug, being one of the richest natural sources of L-DOPA, while as a legume the plant fixes nitrogen and is valued as fodder, cover crop and soil improver.

• Family: Fabaceae
• Native region: Tropical Africa and Asia, including India
• Mature height: Climbing vine, 3–6 m of trailing growth
• Growth rate: Fast

The hard-coated seeds germinate far more reliably after a soak: steep them in water for 24 hours (or nick the coat) until they swell, then direct-sow about 2–3 cm deep in warm, well-drained soil, ideally near a trellis or support. Seedlings emerge in about one to two weeks; keep them watered through establishment and let the vines climb, harvesting the pods carefully because of the stinging hairs.