A green bean tree?

Wow, I sure wouldn't take a chance on it without being sure they were not poisonous! Were they anything like locust beans? Here is a closer picture: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3002/2697406356_844c5317c2.jpg?v=0 If it is the same, that might be a crob! Too cool!

This reminds me of a tree I had when Iwas renting. It was a tree without beans, but I started growing loofahs and a vine grew up this tree and there would be loofahs hanging off the branches of this tree that was outside my house. Not many people seem to grow loofahs in Australia, especially in the suburbs and it would be amusing to see people stopped in the street outside, gazing at this tree and trying to work out what the tree was!

Not sure if we're talking about the same thing, but I grew 'yard-long' string beans one year. (For some reason I can't see the picture too well) I wish I could remember the right name they called them, but I don't lol. They grew very tall vines and the leaves look just like regular beans. I had to grow them on poles so that they could climb. Some of the beans were more than 3 feet in length! I think I bought them out of a Burpee catalog or one of those mail order ones. It was a very unusual looking bean, but they tasted just the same as a regular string bean would. I remember we had a lot of fun growing those, and I froze a whole bunch for Thanksgiving. They were the hit of the day because you only needed one string bean on your plate. They looked really neat curled up in the dish too. If I could find them again I'd definitely grow them again. I've never seen this kind of bean sold anywhere but in the mail order seed catalogs. This year for my novelty plant I planted purple string beans. They grow purple, then when you cook them they are green just like a regular string bean, same taste too.

well, I tried to look at that picture we have something around here I call an "orchid tree" and I've been told it is related, but I couldn't find any pix of it online It has white orchid like flowers in the spring, huge flat leaves and long beans that grow that turn black in the fall and stay on the tree in the winter - and they do look like vanilla beans - I've been told they are indeed related to the orchid - but I just couldn't find any pix. messy tree I've been told, the flowers fall and make a mess, the huge leaves fall and make a mess and then the beans fall and make a mess

ahhh, yes... the green bean tree... when growing up in SC, my parents would make us pick one for our 'switch' when we were bad... LUCKILY that didn't happen more then once or twice LOL... the threat was enough after that... they made good for imagination dinners too! (great side to a mudpie) THey're not edible, & infact, next time you pass by one, pick up a 'green bean' and peel it... you'll see for yourself... I THINK it's their seeds but I'm not a botanist to know for sure... Thanks for the memories... we actually have one in our yard now in MA & I tease the kids that they're lucky I dont make them pick a switch like I had to LOL...