A mysterious blob likened to the Eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings left people baffled after it was found washed up on a Cornish beach.
Hikers Patrick Colledge and Thomas Evans says they were "clueless” when they spotted it on the sand at Benoath Cove.
Wildlife experts eventually identified the blob as a red hamburger bean from South America, named because of its resemblance to the fast food favourite.
However the two discoverers said they believe it looks more like Sauron from Lord of the Rings.
Patrick, 24, said: "We were amazed, it felt like something magical we had stumbled across.
"We could tell it wasn’t man-made but that was about the only fact we could conclude.
"The weight and it looking like an eye really made it feel strange – it was light, slightly rough and almost looking at you.
"We walked to the cave entrance on the beach and it was on the sand right in front of the entrance.
"Its diameter was slightly larger than a £2 coin and its shape was like a half squashed ping pong ball.
"It felt almost stone-like apart from the weight which was abnormally light, and it looked like an octopus eye but it was too light and rounded.
"The eye thing really threw us off. I can see how people thought it looked like the Eye of Sauron.”
Abby Crosby from the Cornwall Wildlife Trust confirmed it was a red hamburger bean, the seed of the Mucuna urens – a climbing plant from the tropics.
Its seeds are buoyant, enabling them to drift on the ocean.
She said: "Some people have successfully germinated and grown these plants in houses and greenhouses.
"We get all sorts of species washing in but this one is a rather popular one.
"We have had several records this January, February and March, so the currents are obviously in our favour.”
Patrick, from Budleigh in Devon, said the verdict was a surprise.
He added: "We had zero idea it would be a seed from the rainforest. We hadn’t even narrowed it down to a seed, or being terrestrial instead of aquatic.”
