Someone sent me some seed to Price's Cherokee Pole bean, which is also black seeded. And, while visiting a Cherokee historical garden, not far from here, I saw a black seeded Cherokee half runner. Half runners which do not require staking (even if they can use it) are sometimes technically considered "bush." But in my opinion, the odds are that you have a climbing bean which should be treated as a pole bean until you learn otherwise. George Tahlequah, OK

Sunny, Often times the names have a story or very specific reason for having that name. You might be interested in the following: ÂCherokee Trail of Tears - Heirloom Bean Memorializes the forced relocation of the Cherokee Indians. These black seeds were carried during the infamous winter death march from October 1838 in the Smoky Mountains to March 26, 1839 in Oklahoma, leaving a trail of 4,000 graves, hence the  Trail of Tears. There are also other vegetables known as Trail of Tears for similar reasons, such as "Trail of Tears Corn". Photos of Moon and Stars Watermelon

Glenda, That's a fine-looking bowl of beans. I hope your first fall frost is late, late, late, so you have a chance to harvest a lot of beans. I think Cherokee Trail of Tears was the first heirloom bean I ever planted as an adult. I am sure we had heirloom beans when I was a kid, but I don't remember what they were and we didn't know they were heirlooms---they were just beans to us. It did amuse my dad is his later years that "heirloom" vegetables had become so popular. Many of the heirloom varieties I was finding and planting in the 1990s were the same varieties his family planted in the 1920s and 1930s and he got a big kick out of that because he thought all of those old varieties were 'extinct'. I grow so many different heirlooms that all my local gardening friends have just about given up on seeing any vegetable variety in my garden that they recognize. It was fun watching my new gardening friends here in Love County freak out those first few years when they saw some unrecognizable oddities in our garden like orange tomatoes, black tomatoes, purple jalapenos, red okra, white pumpkins, purple green beans, green pumpkins, etc. Now some of them also grow these 'oddly colored' varieties and I'm not as much of an oddball (a proud oddball!) as I used to be. Dawn

For pole dry beans: Brita's Foot Long (white seeded, similar to Great Northern in size) Dolloff (a New England native) some of the pole Cranberry beans I have also grown several heirlooms with high dry seed yields. Striped Cornfield is a cranberry type, with nearly round seeds packed tightly in short pods. Sargas has seeds that start out golden yellow, and darken to orange-brown. Bosnian Pole has a high yield whether used as Romano-type snaps, or as dry beans. Under good conditions, any of the above should produce about 2 pounds from an eight foot row. Some pole snap beans can also produce large amounts of seed if let go (such as the KY Wonder) but the taste & texture can vary from good, to bland, to unpleasant. KY Wonder White (a.k.a. Pole 191) is a snap whose seeds are plentiful & nearly indistinguishable from Brita's Foot Long, but inferior in flavor.