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Apios americana

Perennial

HomePerennialApios americana

Usually found in low damp bottomland or riparian woods and thickets, it is also often found round ancient Indian campsites.

Family: Fabaceae
Height: 1.2 m / 4 ft
Sun, Semi-shade
Light, Medium Soil
Moist

Plant Rating

Edible Uses: 5 of 5
Medicinal Uses: 1 of 5
Other Uses: 3 of 5

Native Habitat

Ground Nut Apios americana native habitat is Usually found in low damp bottomland or riparian woods and thickets, it is also often found round ancient Indian campsites.

Edible Uses

Tuber - raw or cooked. A delicious flavour somewhat like roasted sweet potatoes, it always receives very high marks in taste trials with us. The tuber can also be dried and ground into a powder then used as a thickening in soups etc or can be added to cereal flours when making bread. Tubers contain 17% crude protein, this is more than 3 times that found in potatoes. The tubers can be harvested in their first year but they take 2 - 3 years to become a sizeable crop. They can be harvested at any time of the year but are at their best in the autumn. The tubers can also be harvested in the autumn and will store until at least the spring. Yields of 2.3 kilos of tubers per plant have been achieved. Seed - cooked. Rather small and not produced very freely, they are used like peas and beans. A good source of protein, they can be ground into a powder and added to cereals when making bread etc. The seedpods are 5 - 13cm long, containing 6 - 13 small seeds. Young seedpods. The seedpods are up to 13cm long.

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