Apios americana
Uses summary
Description
Popular names
Classification
Cultivars
History
Uses
Leguminosae. GROUNDNUT. WILD BEAN. Northeast America. The tubers are used as food. Kalm [1] says this is the kopniss of the Indians on the Delaware, who ate the roots; that the Swedes ate them for want of bread, and that in 1749 some of the English ate them instead of potatoes. Winslow [2] says that the Pilgrims, during their first winter, "were enforced to live on ground nuts." At Port Royal, in 1613, Biencourt [3] and his followers used to scatter about the woods and shores digging ground nuts. In France, the plant is grown in the flower garden [4].