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Herbal Database Search ResultsBack to: Pathways Main Search Page For Metaphysical uses visit The Witchs Haven Amphicarpaea bracteata
Physical CharacteristicsPerennial Climber growing to 1.5m. It is hardy to zone 7 and is frost tender. It is in leaf from May to October, in flower from August to September, and the seeds ripen from September to October. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Insects. It can fix Nitrogen. We rate it 5/5 for edibility and 1/5 for medicinal use. The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in full shade (deep woodland) or semi-shade (light woodland). It requires moist soil. Habitats and Possible LocationsWoodland, Cultivated Beds, Sunny Edge, Dappled Shade, Shady Edge, Deep Shade.Edible UsesRoot; Seed.
Seed - raw or cooked[2, 161]. Two types of seed are produced - flowers
produced near the ground produce a pod that buries itself just below soil
level. These pods contain a single seed are up to 15mm in diameter which can
be used as a peanut substitute. They can be harvested throughout the winter
and can be eaten raw or cooked[2, 63, 95, 161]. They are sweet and delicious
raw with a taste that is more like shelled garden beans than peanuts[183].
Yields are rather low, and it can be a fiddle finding the seeds, but they do
make a very pleasant and nutritious snack[K].
Medicinal UsesDisclaimer
An infusion of the root has been used in the treatment of
diarrhoea[257]. Externally, the root has been applied to bites from
rattlesnakes[257].
Other UsesNone knownCultivation detailsRequires a moist humus-rich soil in a shady position[200].The young shoots in spring can be damaged by late frosts[K]. The hog peanut has occasionally been cultivated for its edible seed which has been used as a peanut substitute[183]. Yields at present, however, are rather low[K]. Two types of blossom are produced by the plant - those produced from the leaf axils mostly abort but a few seeds are produced[95]. Solitary, inconspicuous cleistogamous flowers are produced on thread-like stems near the root and, after flowering, the developing seedpods bury themselves into the soil in a manner similar to peanuts[95, 274]. This species has a symbiotic relationship with certain soil bacteria, these bacteria form nodules on the roots and fix atmospheric nitrogen. Some of this nitrogen is utilized by the growing plant but some can also be used by other plants growing nearby[200]. PropagationSeed - pre-soak for 12 hours in warm water and then sow in spring in a semi-shaded position in a greenhouse. Germination usually takes place within a few weeks. When large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in the greenhouse for their first winter, planting them out in late spring or early summer.Division. We have been unable to divide this plant because it only makes a small taproot. However, many of the seeds are produced under the ground and these can be harvested like tubers and potted up to make more plants. SuppliersFor more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look. PFAF Web PagesThis plant is mentioned in the following web pagesWeb References
See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources. Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images. References[K] Ken Fern
[2] Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6 [43] Fernald. M. L. Gray's Manual of Botany. American Book Co. 1950 [63] Howes. F. N. Nuts. Faber 1948 [95] Saunders. C. F. Edible and Useful Wild Plants of the United States and Canada. Dover Publications 1976 ISBN 0-486-23310-3 [161] Yanovsky. E. Food Plants of the N. American Indians. Publication no. 237. U.S. Depf of Agriculture. [177] Kunkel. G. Plants for Human Consumption. Koeltz Scientific Books 1984 ISBN 3874292169 [183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9 [200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5 [235] Britton. N. L. Brown. A. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada Dover Publications. New York. 1970 ISBN 0-486-22642-5 [257] Moerman. D. Native American Ethnobotany Timber Press. Oregon. 1998 ISBN 0-88192-453-9 Readers CommentsAllium vinealeMichael J. Orlove D.I.C., D. Phil (mo42@cornell.edu) Sun, 25 Jul 1999 Universe! Dear Rich, 24-July-1999 I discovered your page with the following URL: http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/onions.html In it you made reference to Allium ursinum, as "wild garlic". I always thought A. ursinum was a rare species in North American woods, and that in Britain and North America the term was usually applied to A vineale. It is also applied to A. canadesne as you know, and also feral populations of A. sativum whose origin in the New world is considered mysterious, Native Americans and early White settlers have both been suspected of introducing it, or possibly it spread on its own without human agency (which I doubt). A. vineale is a tubular leaved species but it is much more closely related to A. ampeloprasum, A. sativum, A., scorodoprasum, A. shaeonoprasum, and A. rosem than to A. cepa, or A. fistulosum. It is the one that is a pest in wheatfields because of the similarity of its bulbils in shape and density to wheat kernels, making mechanical separation very difficult. what has fascinated me so much about A. vineale is its extreme variation in umbel contents even within a local population. some plants have flowers some bulbils, and some both. When bulbils are few or absent in the umbel, the blossoms are VERY showy --being companulate instead of ovatge. At such times they are purple instead of green. The very showy form is known as A. V. capsuliferum in reference to its seed capsules. the half and half (bulbils and blossoms) form is called A. V. typicum, and the all bulbil one is A. v. compactgum. Two dark pigmented bulbilforms are also described, one reproduces like compactum, and is called A. v. fuscescens, and the other appears to have viviparous bulbils, but the "sprouts" are actually non-vestigal blades on scale leaves on the bulbils, and is known as A. v. crinitum. crinitum usually has one or 2 ovate flowers per umbel which are lavender or purple in color. All sorts of intermediates exist between these forms. Here in Ithaca fuscescens-like ones have flowers, and crinitum like ones don't or crinitum like ones will have many flowers and viable flowers with many capsuls forming. I once found a clump of capsuliferum surrounded by a vast field of hundreds and thousands of typicum. Those typicum near the capliferum had purple flowers like the capsuliferum, but the ones farther out had the green flowers typical of typicum. The blossoms of this species are usually visited by tiny ants, sweat bees, or nothing at all, but the capsuliferum where being actively and aggressively visited by large bumblebees (Bombus pennsylvanicus --a large pocket maker, related to the British species B agrorum, but as big as B. terristris). Large paper wasps (Polistes fuscatus) were equally present and interested in the nectar. An article by Hugo Iltis in the 1940's (it was either in Scientific Monthly or Atlantic Monthly) claimed that this showy capsuliferum form made it as far north a as North Carolina, and . v. typicum was as good as you could get in the Northeast. Nevertheless this wonderful clump of capsuliferum I found was in the Bronx! that was in 1979, and it continued to persist there until 1983. could this have been global warming? the real question was this capsuliferum more related to the non - sexual nonspecific neighbors around it, or capsuliferum in N. Ccarolina? did it evolve denovo from non-sexual or less sexual forms? Many biologists say it is a mystery how sex evolved to begin with (the origin - of- sex question" and it is equally a mystery how sex stays in the population and doesn't get selected against (the maintenance - of -sex question). John Maynard Smith (at the University of Susex), Goeffrey Parker (University of Liverpool), and George Williams (University of the State of New York at Stonybrook) have become famous elucidating and trying to solve this mystery. It seems that mating with a stranger may further the fitness of your offspring, but it appears not enough to justify throwing half-of your genes away, as a female does when mating. Plants with both cleistogamous and chasmogamous flowers, like Violo sp., Impatiens capensis (Orange balsam), and I. noli-tangeri (touch-me-not), and the very similar North American I. palida, not to mention the hog peanut, Amphicarpaea xxx, present a similar example of this mystery. What are your thoughts on this issue? How far north does A. v. capsuliferum make it in Britain? I have found capsuliferum in Interlaken, N. Y. Near Ithaca, N. Y. where Cornell University is, but these ones were not as tall or showy as the ones from the much warmer Bronx. but they were capsuliferum, and made good seed. I have 2 accessions of them, one from a bulbil, and the other from a seed collected from the same umbel in Interlaken. I have been unable to get them to blossom or even bolt with bulbils in my garden, just getting non scapigqarous growth every spring. There is some folklore in this country that A. vineale takes on its capsuliferum form when in the vacinity of an underground stream, and dowsers exploit the information provided by the occurrence of the plant in particular instances. Well I must go now, Please forgive my sloppy typing, I am disabled and it takes me eons to proofread things. Incidentally, are you in &ndndndnd, or Yorkshire? Some day I will, if I only live, compare the DNA of different forms of A. V. vineale from different locations. the Bronx material seems to be now absent from the original site, I have been back 3 times over the years, and the material I collected now exists as seed in cold storage, but I lack access to it over a technicality (it was shipped to another storage facility instead to Harvard where I was going to grow it out, due to an accident, and it would take a very large sum to recover it, as well as the permission of the person who became its accidental owner who is not willing to release it to me. this is very frustrating. sincerely yours, Michael J. Orlove D.I.C., D. Phil Cross references: Plants: Allium ursinum, Allium canadense, Allium canadense mobilense, Allium sativum, Allium sativum ophioscorodon, Allium vineale, Impatiens capensis, Impatiens noli-tangere, Impatiens pallida. Genera: Viola, Amphicarpaea. Web-pages: Allium Species - the Perennial Onions, PFAF - Allium ursinum, Wild Garlic. Back to: Pathways Home page, Main Search Page Help Bibliography
Plant information taken from the
Plants For A Future -
Species Database.
Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
This page (UK)
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