The velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) is a vigorous tropical climbing legume grown across Africa, Asia and Central America both as a cover crop and, after careful leaching, as a protein-rich pulse. Its curved pods are clothed in irritant hairs, yet the mottled seeds within are an important famine food — boiled and pounded like beans, milled into flour, or roasted and ground into a caffeine-free "coffee" once known commercially as Nescafé bean.