Velvet Bean

Mucuna pruriens, commonly called velvet bean and also known by names including monkey tamarind, Bengal velvet bean, Florida velvet bean, Mauritius velvet bean, Yokohama velvet bean, cowage, cowitch, lacuna bean and Lyon bean, is a tropical legume native to Africa and tropical Asia that has been widely naturalized and cultivated. The species is notorious for the extreme itchiness it produces on contact, particularly from its young foliage and seed pods, which can cause medium-sized red swollen bumps on skin. It has agricultural and horticultural value and is used in herbalism, and in Indonesia, particularly Java, its beans are eaten as food and can be fermented into a tempeh-like product; the plant also serves as an important forage, fallow and green manure crop in many parts of the world because of its nitrogen-fixing properties.