The seeds fall from their parent plant into waterways, such as the Amazon River, then drift through inlets to reach the ocean. They travel with ocean currents until they wash up on a beach somewhere, perhaps thousands of miles from their origin. The number of beans you can find in a day will vary with time of year , Gulf Stream variations, offshore hurricane activity, wind and temperature changes, and tropical plant abundance for a particular year. In Florida, September and October are typically the most bountiful times to find sea-beans.
Tides leave behind drift seeds along with seaweed, driftwood, tar, trash, and toys.
This line of debris on the beach is called a wrack. With each successive tide, the wrack is pushed farther toward the dune line. However, sometimes a high tide will sweep over the wrack and pull it back out to sea, carrying the seaweed and drift seeds to another beach. Although sea-beans are studied for medicinal uses, no one has ever mentioned eating them, except for the coconut, which is considered a drift seed.