These mala’s with Bodhi beads are modern Chinese mass production, but interesting.
There are always 18 beads + Guru bead, and as far as I know every individual bead represent an Arhat or wise man. I make a sport out of it to find out the botanical and Chinese name of each bead. Impossible! There are too many variations of the way the seeds are processed. Also a lot of seeds are given just commercial names that varies by each commercial dealer. The seeds used here, are imported from all over the world to China I presume. Moreover, the mala's and other organical beads are nice to collect.
Hereby a Chinese mala with Trapa bicornis and one single Trapa natans.
The big acorn like, top right, in Stefany's picture is Lithocarpus corneus