Picture posting is enabled for all :)
Is it too late to join the Seed Circle? I've been saving Purple Sprouting Broccoli (variety lost in the mists of time, sorry) seeds each year now for 4 years, and sunflowers for 7, so I can offer those. Plus French Beans (looks for pic of seeds...) seem to be the type called YinYang or Calypso. Do French Beans need "isolating"? I've never thought of it before...
The Georgian runners are up and there is "something of the night" about them!
The French Beans are the climbing sort.
Maroon-and-white (tries to find icon for a glass of wine...fails...takes another swig)
I have a long line in the greenhouse of beans including Jayb's black podded but the Georgians are the darkest ,inky black veins and the seed inside bit is very dark too! The seed case was coffee and caramel in tone. To be continued........
I can actually remember where my beans came from: our local eco-enthuseaste handed me an envelope with about 6 of them in it, he seemed very proud of them (in a nice way) so they might be the unusual ones you suggest. I've been saving and replantig every year since then. I'm absolutely certan I shall bump into him in the next couple of weeks or so, when I do I shall ask him what they are.
I found an interesting little bean plant among my Barlotto Lingua di Fuoco a few years back - I forget exactly what the plant was like but it was definitely different, smaller and with only a few small pods. I saved 4 seeds for absolutely no reason, and from them I'd guess that the plant was a the result of a cross with Lingua as one of the parents since they have that characteristic speckling. They are much darker though, medium brown with medium-dark spots. Might plant them and see what they do.I hear that although French beans can cross, but it's pretty rare, and a 6ft gap between varieties should be enough to maintain purity.