Black runner beans

[ameno]

Last year, a couple of the pods of my Enorma runner beans (which I grew for dry beans) had beans inside which wee almost entirely black, with just a few purple flecks, rather than the usual purple with black flecks.
I have saved 6 of these, and am growing them in he hope of getting more black runner beans, but does anyone have any experience with this? I was thinking they might have arisen by crossing with my Cobra french beans, which have black seeds.

[Thelma Sanders]

It's not often they cross-pollinate but they can I grew cosse violet French beans on the same wigwam as some white runner beans, the plants I grew from saved seed grew some 'interesting' bean pods the next year Good luck!

[SarrissUK]

I think I might have had a few crosses, which might have meant that the seeds I planted were from cross pollinated plants, is that right? Some seeds looked really quite unusual and different from the rest.

[Mark_Riga]

This previous thread suggests french and runner are highly unlikely to cross (with each other) but the runner could well cross with others up to a mile away.

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ion_29242.html

[Trouvere]

Has anyone ever tried crossing their Greek Gigantes with runner beans with more brilliantly coloured seeds? I assume if it were that easy we'd all be growing Scarlet Gigantes already, but I thought I'd put one Greek Gigantes in with my Scarlet Emperors this year.

[ameno]

Has anyone ever tried crossing their Greek Gigantes with runner beans with more brilliantly coloured seeds? I assume if it were that easy we'd all be growing Scarlet Gigantes already, but I thought I'd put one Greek Gigantes in with my Scarlet Emperors this year.

Scarlet runner bean seeds might look nice dry, but they cook to an unexciting brown. I think I'd rather stick to white Gigantes...

This previous thread suggests french and runner are highly unlikely to cross (with each other) but the runner could well cross with others up to a mile away.

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ion_29242.html

I had heard that, but it must at least be possible, seeing as there are several runner/french crosses on the market, and it would certainly explain where the black beans came from. The only other possibility I can think of is that it's simply a random mutation.