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Apios americana
Also called American Potato Bean, American Groundnut, Apios, Ground Bean, Potatobean, Wild Bean, America Hodoimo
Apios americana is a climbing perennial vine in the pea family, native to eastern North America, grown for its edible tubers and seeds. It needs moist soil and a support to climb, and the tubers must be cooked before eating.
Apios americana, sometimes called the American groundnut, potato bean, hopniss, Indian potato, hodoimo, America-hodoimo, cinnamon vine, or groundnut (not to be confused with other plants in the subfamily Faboideae sometimes known by that name) is a deciduous or evergreen perennial vine.
The sizeable tubers as well as the beans can be cooked and eaten. The former, having the culinary characteristics of a potato with a nuttier flavour, were of historical importance to Native Americans and European colonists.
Studies in rats suggest that raw tubers should not be consumed. They contain harmful protease inhibitors that are denatured by cooking.
The plant's natural range is from southern Canada (including Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick) down through Florida and west as far as the border of Colorado.
The tubers and seeds can both be cooked and eaten, the former in the manner of potatoes and the latter like peas.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Apios americana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
