Apios americana Medik.

Potato bean, groundnut, hopniss, Indian potato, bog potato, Virginia potato, wild potato, wild sweet potato

About plant names...

Potato beans are natives of eastern North America. Its edible beans and roots were an essential food for native Americans and European settlers alike, attested to by its many common names. They are members of the legume family, and like other legumes, their roots have a bacteria that traps nitrogen.

Identification: Potato beans are vines that reach 9½-13' (3-4 m) in length. Leaves are 3-6" (8-15 cm) long, with clusters of 5-7 leaflets. Flowers are in dense, rounded clusters, red-brown to purplish in color, ⅜-½" (9.5-12 mm) in size, shaped similarly to other pea family flowers, but uniquely colored. The flowers have a spring-loaded pollen distri­bution system that is triggered by insects. Bean pods are 2-4" (5-10 cm) long and about ¼" (6.3 mm) in diameter.

Edibility: The beans from this plant are edible, as well as the tubers (roots), which are crunchy, and contain starch and 2-3 times the protein of potatoes. Long underground roots have nodules or swellings that are the tubers, which may be prepared like potatoes. Peeling is not necessary. Henry David Thoreau preferred his potato beans boiled rather than roasted; they can also be fried. When boiled, the roots taste like a cross between boiled peanuts and somewhat granular or powdery potatoes. They are a good choice for chips, since their reduced sugar content keeps them from browning. They can be added to salads, soups, stews, or vegetable dishes. Poison ivy is sometimes found growing near this plant, so be careful not to harvest (or even touch) any poison ivy roots, which are just as toxic as the rest of the plant.

Curiously, this historically important food is only now being developed as a commercial crop. Groundnut is listed as an obvious candidate for this purpose in North American Cornucopia: Top 100 Indigenous Food Plants.

Medical: A few people are allergic to groundnut.

Online References:

Missouriplants.com

Www.groundnutgardens.com

Professor Ed Klekowski's site about the Connecticut River

Purdue University's Center for New Crops and Plants Products (an article about the domestication of Apios americana from Purdue University)

Plants for a Future, a resource and information centre for edible and otherwise useful plants

in Orion Magazine (an article entitled Stalking the Wild Groundnut)

References:

Small, Ernest, North American Cornucopia: Top 100 Indigenous Food Plants, CRC Press, 2014, p. 337-342

Clemants, Steven; Gracie, Carol, Wildflowers in the Field and Forest, Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 102

7/23/2010 · Nashua River Boat Ramp on Rte 119, Groton, Mass­a­chu­setts
≈ 8 × 5" (19 × 13 cm)

7/23/2010 · Nashua River Boat Ramp on Rte 119, Groton, Mass­a­chu­setts
≈ 4½ × 3" (11 × 7.9 cm)

7/5/2020 · New Orleans, Louisiana · By Heather A. Kent ID is uncertain

7/23/2010 · Nashua River Boat Ramp on Rte 119, Groton, Mass­a­chu­setts
≈ 3½ × 2½" (9.8 × 6.6 cm)

7/23/2010 · Nashua River Boat Ramp on Rte 119, Groton, Mass­a­chu­setts
≈ 4½ × 3" (11 × 7.9 cm)

9/22/2013 · Squannacook River Wildlife Management Area, off route 119, Townsend, Mass­a­chu­setts
≈ 4½ × 4½" (12 × 12 cm)

9/22/2013 · Squannacook River Wildlife Management Area, off route 119, Townsend, Mass­a­chu­setts
≈ 7 × 9" (18 × 23 cm)

Apios americana description by Thomas H. Kent, last updated 25 May 2020.

© FloraFinder.org. All rights reserved.

8/18/2010 · J. Harry Rich Woods, off Nod Rd., Groton, Mass­a­chu­setts
≈ 2½ × 2" (6.9 × 5.5 cm)

8/18/2010 · J. Harry Rich Woods, off Nod Rd., Groton, Mass­a­chu­setts
≈ 9 × 6" (21 × 15 cm)

8/18/2010 · J. Harry Rich Woods, off Nod Rd., Groton, Mass­a­chu­setts
≈ 3 × 2½" (8.3 × 6.6 cm)

7/5/2020 · New Orleans, Louisiana · By Heather A. Kent ID is uncertain

7/23/2010 · Nashua River Boat Ramp on Rte 119, Groton, Mass­a­chu­setts
≈ 5 × 5" (13 × 13 cm)

8/18/2010 · J. Harry Rich Woods, off Nod Rd., Groton, Mass­a­chu­setts
≈ 22 × 15" (55 × 39 cm)

8/18/2010 · J. Harry Rich Woods, off Nod Rd., Groton, Mass­a­chu­setts
≈ 7 × 6" (18 × 14 cm)

8/18/2010 · J. Harry Rich Woods, off Nod Rd., Groton, Mass­a­chu­setts
≈ 2½ × 2½" (6.6 × 6.6 cm)

8/18/2010 · J. Harry Rich Woods, off Nod Rd., Groton, Mass­a­chu­setts
≈ 6 × 4" (14 × 11 cm)

Washed tubers ready for peeling and boiling, courtesy of Ellen Zachos. · 1/1/2011 · MacDonald-Zachos’
≈ 7 × 4½" (17 × 11 cm)

8/18/2010 · J. Harry Rich Woods, off Nod Rd., Groton, Mass­a­chu­setts
≈ 9 × 6" (23 × 15 cm)

Range:

About this map...