A teenage horticulturalist has donated a plant grown from the world’s biggest seed pod to the Eden Project.  

Budding plantsman Evan Smith came across what he thought was an ‘unusual pebble’ on a beach at Three Cliffs Bay in South Wales. Upon closer inspection, and following a quick buoyancy test, Evan concluded that this strange heart-shaped object must, in fact, be a seed.   

And not just any seed, but one from the world’s biggest seed pod: Entada gigas, a vine native to Central America, northern South America, the Caribbean and Africa.  

Evan germinated the seed successfully at home, but the vine rapidly outgrew its supportive bamboo, taking to the curtains. Evan, who is 14 and from Swansea, reached out to the Eden Project to home his exotic vine, nick-named ‘Cliff’. 

Entada gigas produces large seeds known as sea beans or sea hearts due to their propensity to float for thousands of miles across oceans, often for as long as a year, to wash up on the shores of northern Europe. It’s likely this seed was carried across the ocean by the Gulf stream, potentially originating 5,000 miles away.  

The plant is part of the pea and bean family, Fabaceae, and can yield pods up to two metres long and 12cm wide. Each gigantic pod can house up to 15 seeds, each around 6cm in diameter and 2cm thick.  

Catherine Cutler, Eden’s interim head of horticulture, said: “We were delighted when Evan contacted us to ask if we might adopt his plant. Plant donations are rarely accepted due to the bio-security risk posed, but Evan and his very special plant caught our imagination.  

“After putting protocols in place, we finally could receive the plant. We look forward to introducing Cliff to the Rainforest biome where he should thrive.” 

In their natural habitat, the woody vines scramble rapidly from ground level and provide thoroughfares through the canopy for animals and insects – a role that has earned them the nickname ‘monkey-ladder’.