Short Stuff: Mexican Jumping Beans

for her. Right, that's a pretty good check. That was very nice to think. Jerry's gonna appreciate this if she ever hears it. Not a chance. So when you were a kid, did you were you aware of the idea of something called Mexican jumping beans? Yes, okay, so was. I think probably from like cartoons or something like that. And I'm not sure if I assume that they actually existed. Did did you think they existed? I don't remember when I first saw them. Oh wow, you still never seen them,

have you? No? I never had. I've seen them on the YouTube, so that's it. Yeah, I've seen him in person at some point, And I don't know if it was just because you know, you can buy them in a little uh souvenir packs and stuff like that. So I don't know if I saw him when I was a kid or when I was an adult and finally

went to Mexico. I don't know, but I've seen him before. Well, there was like a glory day in the in the sixties, I think, where you could walk into like a KB toy store in the United States and find Mexican jumping beans for sale, the golden Age of Mexican jumping beans. That's right, But I guess we just kind of spoiled it if you were, you know, aware of Mexican jumping beans and thought they were just kind of made up like snipe ponting or jackalopes or whatever. No, they're actually

for real. Chuck can verify that. But the thing about them is they're not actually beans um their seeds, but they do actually move and kind of jump a little bit, move around at least on their own. And for a while at first, no one really had any idea what the heck was going on. We just knew that it was kind of cool to watch and a little thrilling, especially before the television and even really before radio. This

is what people did. They stood around and watch being roll around on their own or like ant farms or police circuses. Yeah, simpler people. So they should have just called them Mexican jumping seeds, because that's just as good to me. I don't know why the bean made it more marketable. Necessarily, maybe because they look like beans. I don't know, I don't know. I mean their seeds. They should just call them that. Hey, asqua Keene Hernandez, the

jumping being king, he could tell you. We'll get to him. But they are seed pods. They're from a plant called the Yerba de Fletcher or the Sebastiana pabo Nanna, very nice, it's all right, you said Latin and Spanish in the same breath. That was really great. That means herb of the arrow, which it was taken from the fact that the poison from the shrub sap was used sometimes to tip the poison for their arrow tips from local tribes. I think I looked it up. I think it might

be the Yaqui who did that. All right, well, it's a deciduous shrub. It's got leathery leaves that it's dark green but then turn red in the winter. I bet it's beautiful. It is. I think I looked up pictures. It looked nice to me. I've never seen them. I've never been to the to the Rio Mio. I hadn't even heard of it. But it sounds creamy and delicious. Yea, well, that's the region where they're found in Sonora and Chihuahua. I can't even get a good laugh out of you

with my dad jokes anymore. They're that bad. Uh. That one was okay, all right. I wasn't sure if you were serious or not. So they grow on these rocky slopes, and back in the nineteen twenties is when they first started to kind of hit the States. That's when they came state side in San Francisco. San Francisco, and there was an article in the chronicle about the little freakish brown seeds that just basically delighted people of all ages. Yeah,

Mental Flaws had a pretty good article on this. Um. He said that these beans cavorted about to the edification and delight of children and grown ups. Yeah, well, actually they said seeds, Yeah they did. They call it seeds correctly, right, because this was pre Joaquin Hernandez, right, so I guess he. I wonder if he really was the one who changed it over to beans. Who knows that he's a smart kid. Maybe take a break. I think we're at the halfway point. Sure,

all right, okay, chuck, enough enough dilly dallying. Let's get to Joaquin Hernandez. Please. Who is he? He is a I who in the forties was twelve years old and was aware of Mexican jumping beans, although they weren't called that at the time, he knew they were kind of interesting, but he thought, maybe if you marketed these things just right, you could really have like a novelty on your hands. Joke shops will go bonkers for these things. And he

was absolutely right. He's like, kids are dumb, Yeah, kids like me. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing. This guy was twelve years old and he became the literal jumping bean king right over the following decades. I think Alamos and Sonora, where he lived, is now the capital, the jumping mean capital of the world. It will probably never give up that title. Why would it so? Um? Early on, like people did not know what was going on with these things. They were just delighted by them. Some people were kind

of curious, some people had an idea. But there were early theories before it was widely understood, things like, um, that there was a static charge or something like that maybe making bounce, or there was gas trapped inside that was somehow exploding. Who knows. It turns out that botanists and biologists are anomologists, I should say, figured it out.

Maybe the all three Linda hand, yeah, they all. It was a joint effort, but they the entomologist that's who I'm going with, said, you know what, you know what's in there. There's a live, living moth larvae in there, and that is what's making these seeds bounce. That's right. The jumping bean moth lay this little eggs and the flower of that plant, and then of course the eggs are then in the seeds. Starts to rain in the springtime, and that seed develops and matures and it splits into

three little guys. Uh, they fall on the ground and then those they don't always but usually those little smaller parts have the martha larvae inside larvae larvae, and that's you know, they're in there. Screaming help. Well, they're doing all sorts of things. For one that they they um burrow or they make their um there cocoon, I guess in the in the um these seeds, because they eat the seed from the inside out as they're kind of going through this metamorphosis into a moth. And if you

have Mexican jumping beans you can get them. Still. If you have them and you take care of them, you could actually witness the moth emerging from the seed eventually. But in the meantime it's eating the seed from the inside out, which causes movement um. And then also they weave their cocoon. They spend their cocoon inside and they

suspend it from the interior walls of the seed. And so when they move about, their movements are telegraphed through the cocoon and the silk that's like attached to the seed, which is it creates enough energy or enough force to actually move the seed pod. Yeah, and I think, uh, where did you get this? Was some of this from the mental flaws article? I know there was a um There was another thing that I will mention in a second, if you will keep talking, Okay, I'm not stalling him.

I not know. The cool thing that they mentioned is that if it was just a little larvae inside, it would in order to move that being like it moves, it would smush itself. If it was just like slam dancing against the walls. That one was all josh, oh, that was all you all right, Well, the fact that it those silk cables from the cocoon are attached is what makes it move because uh, and then the the

example of the whip makes a lot of sense. You know, when you use a whip, the whip crack at the end is has way more force than what you're doing with the handle of the whip, right exactly. It's the same principle basically, right. Um. And the this the stuff that I based that on came from Wayne's word. It's an online textbook of natural history. Nice. Yeah, check it out, everybody. Yeah,

that's one of the cooler facts of this one. I think the other one that shot that stuck out to me or shot out like a little uh jumping bean moth. Are you saying you like the fact that I made up out of whole cloth the most that's your favorite one.

It finally happened, Thank you. Chuck. The other one I thought was really interesting is you expose these things to heat to get them to jump around, and the they think that that might be a an adaptation basically that when these beans are out there baking in the hot sun, they're like trying to scooch over into a shady spot by making those movements. Yeah, and that amazing. That's pretty remarkable.

It really is. So if if you have Mexican jumping beans and you want to make them jump for your friends, and they don't actually jump is not quite the right word. They move about. They kind of shimmy, they'll roll, tumble that kind of really catch air exactly. Well, put dude in a very eighties gleaming the cube way that's right. Um. But to make them really move, you just expose them to heat. Put him out in the sun, and so

they try to move out of the sun. Well, if you can kind of keep them in the sun, they're really going to start moving. The problem is is this can kill the larvae inside. Yeah, the problem is it's super mean, It really is. So like if this happens out in nature, you know, if the the the larvae can't move the seed pod to a shady spot and actually dehydrates and dies from the heat. That's that circle

of life kind of stuff, right. Yeah, But if you believe that every living thing deserves respect and to be treated well, then do not give these to your children, no, because if you do kill them and it's just for humans amusement, that is that's a little mean. Yeah. I mean, just think of the kid where this being, if the adaptation theory is correct, is desperately trying to get to shade and little Timmy keeps just shoving it right back

in the sun with a magnifying glass on it. It makes you want to shove little Timmy, that's right, as if he were the kind of kid who would squish a lady ug or something. Good. Point. So, um, there are people who say, hey, you can keep these things as pets if you want everybody. In fact, there's a website called jban dot com okay and jbing dot com says you can keep them cameround in your pocket and

the body heat will make them wiggle. If you actually want to let them, um actually come to fruition, you want to keep them in a cool place so that they don't have to wiggle. They can use their energy for eating um. But you want to keep them wet, so you missed them once a week and eventually if you take care of when you can see a moth come out sometimes amazing, It is amazing. Mexican jumping beans are chuck. Amazing. That's right. Well, that's it. You got

anything else? Got anything else? I don't either, So this is short stuff Audios. Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M