Apios americana

[John85]

What do you think about it?
Is it tasty and worth growing?

[John85]

[Vinlander]

Well - it's a bit of a problem to give an opinion, as I know some people have said they like them, but maybe they are in a wetter part of the country.

I produced some that were just about worth eating but only by growing them as a pond-margin plant.

Otherwise the tubers from my ordinary planting are very dry indeed.

I suspect the native american tribes used them as mash - but even then they don't have a great flavour.

The plants are rampant climbers to 3 metres, the tubers are black and hard to find - scattered up to half a metre from the main stem, and this also means they will inevitably become a weed unless you hem them in with landscape fabric. Pots are too dry for crisp tubers unless you keep the saucer flooded.

All in all, only one step up from famine food - and the flowers are a dowdy pink too.

On the other hand, another pea relative that is absolutely delicious is the tuberous pea Lathyrus tuberosus (Linnaeus' favourite tuber) - it really does taste like chestnuts (unlike any other substitute - the rest are all rubbish). Smaller crop, just as essential to confine, but only climbs a metre and produces nice clear pink flowers.

If you have very moist soil you'd probably be better off trying the wapato - Sagittaria latifolia -available as an ornamental from most pond garden centres.

See:  http://thetyee.ca/Life/2010/01/14/Wapato/

"(they) compared the taste to a cross between potato and corn. I'd add roasted chestnut to that description"

Cheers.

[aj]

I've not eaten any yet; I tipped mine out of it's pot on Thursday. Probably have to grow it again to bulk it up as it kind of got left to fend for itself this year without much care and attention.