'Black Shackamaxon' Pole Bean

Phaseolus vulgaris Origin: Shackamaxon (Philadelphia) Improvement status: Cultivar Seeds per packet: ~15 Germination tested 12/2024: 90% Life cycle: Annual Popularized by Dr. William Woys Weaver, these beans are also known as "Treaty Beans," though they may or may not have been involved in the famous treaty agreed to at Shackamaxon with the exchange of Wampum belts and other items. Nevertheless, oral tradition in the Philadelphia region holds that these beans were gifted to William Penn in 1682 by Lenape leaders with whom he negotiated the treaty (unbroken until his no-good sons orchestrated the treacherous "Walking Purchase" in 1737) beneath the arching boughs of the legendary "Treaty Elm" at a site along the Delaware River in what is now the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, but was then the Lenape community called Shackamaxon. The beans were then passed down through Penn's family and maintained by other local Quaker families, most notably the Larkin family of Chester County, Pe