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Old May 10, 2016   #2
aftermidnight
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Vancouver Island B.C.
Posts: 116
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Jeannine, that's going to be a toughie, I lucked out and found the history of the Italian bean I've been growing since 1965, it came to Nanaimo from northern Italy in 1911. In my quest for information I compared the one I had to numerous Italian heirloom beans, one was a close but no cigar (Uncle Steve's) none of the other even came close. Mine has a green and purple streaked pod, the seed very similar in shape to your first pic but the color streaks were more like your second pic only a little darker. I had given it a temporary name 'Auntie Vi' but when I found out who had actually brought this bean to Canada I renamed it in her honor. It's now called 'Emilia's Italian pole bean'
I did grow another Italian bean years ago, a neighbor shared a few seeds with me, she just called it a Italian pole bean.. It was the shape of your second pic but the color of the streaks and swirls on the seed were a light brown. The pod was flat and green with light pinkish streaks.

There are so many lookalikes you may never find out what you have, so if you want to share your seed give it a name, perhaps the family name of who you got it from would do. I did that with another heirloom bean I was given it was someone's grandmothers bean so now it has a name 'Grandma's Yugoslavian' .
Annette
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