Glorifying Morning Glories

Three of the pictures below are are not of the same Ipomoea. It’s three different species, but that should tell you something. When you see a Morning Glory species with a large, white blossom and a ruby throat it is worth investigating. Large white Morning Glories flowers without ruby throats are worth investigating, too. Other color blossoms are more iffy.

A word of warning:  There are several edible and several inedible Morning Glories and impostors. They can all be easily sorted out so do your homework. When you find a possible edible take a picture and research it!

Ipomoea pandurata, Wild Potato Vine

Ipomoea pandurata (eep-oh-MEE-uh  pand-yoor-RAY-tuh, shaped like a fiddle)  is native to Florida and the eastern half of North America. It has a large root that can be eaten if cubed and boiled in at least two changes of water. Never eat it raw. It is also called Wild Potato Vine and “Man of the Earth” because it can create huge roots. Younger and smaller is better. Young roots can also be roasted but they will be on the bitter side.  Boiling twice is the preferred method, then roast the boiled cubes if you like. Usually straight down deep from where the vine goes into the ground you will find the root. Yard-long roots weighing 25 pounds are possible. But, they get more acrid the older they get so if you can find an big old one you might want to let it be and look for a smaller younger one nearby.

I looked for I. pandurata for many years before I found one, being constantly misled by the iffy Alamo Vine. My friend and teacher, Dick Deuerling spoke of the I. pandurata often but all I ever saw was the very common Alamo Vine.  Then one day while on the Orange County Bike Trail near Chapin Station there it was (such moments are important and remembered.) Now I see them often. Leaves are heart-shaped.

The I. pandurata has two similar looking plants. They have white flowers as well. The key to sorting them out are the leaves and flower size. The aforementioned Alamo Vine (Merremia dissecta) has small white flowers with a ruby throat and very dissected leaves that are shaped like fingers on a hand, read palmate. While not edible per se the Merremia dissecta is not totally with out some good features. It has been used as a condiment and for medicinal needs. Leaf extracts have an almond flavor from amygdalin, a cyanide precursor also called natural laetrile. Needless to say it can be toxic stuff if handled poorly either as a flavoring or a medicine. I offer no instruction on that. Crush a leaf and smell it. If you smell almonds you have the M. dissecta. That said, the young roots of a relative, Merremia dissecta var. edentata, are cooked and eaten but it only grows in central South America. The M. dissecta edentata leaves are not toothy and the flower’s throat is not ruby. The name Merremia may be from the name Miriam, meaning Mary, or Virgin Mary plant, said me-REE-mee-uh. Dissecta is said dy-SEK-tuh and means dissected. Edentata, e-DEN-tay-tuh, is toothless.

Ipomoea aquatica, Water Spinach

Our next Morning Glory on the white and ruby line up is Ipomoea aquatica, (eep-oh-MEE-uh a-KWA-ti-ka, water loving.) It’s a native of China called “water spinach.” If you do find it, depending where you live, you’re expected to report it because it grows aggressively. Where fresh water doesn’t freeze, such as Florida, it is colonizing the waterways. In northern areas, winter keeps it in check.

There are two versions of I. aquatica, narrow leaf and wide leaf, both are edible. And actually they come in two colors. The “green” version has green stems and white flowers with red throats. The “red” version has purple-tinged stems with pink or lilac flowers with red throats. They both grow only in water, or very damp soil. The vines, with milky sap, can reach up to 70-feet long (the state of Florida says only nine feet.) Shoots and leaves are the edible parts. You will not find this in dry areas.

Recognized as a potential problem in Florida since the 1950s, I. aquatica has been introduced into the state several times since 1979 by various Asian communities.  It is raised as a vegetable in Florida under strict conditions and only for out-of-state sale. It is also cultivated in Texas, Hawaii and California. In the United States it is found in the wild in (mostly central west) Florida, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

Should you find it do your best to stop its spread by devouring said. It’s the civic thing to do. It can be eaten raw when found in wholesome water. Otherwise, it should be cooked. The leaves are 48% carbohydrates, 24% proteins, 13% ash. They are rich in minerals and a good source of  vitamins A, C and E. It is a major food crop and vegetable in the Orient. The roots are sometimes eaten. Like other members of this family, they are toxic to horses.

Ipomoea batatas, the Sweet Potato

Our third similar Morning Glory is the common cultivated Sweet Potato, Ipomoea batatas (eep-oh-MEE-uh  bah-TAY-tas.) As we already know the root is edible but so are the leaves, cooked like a green. There’s a huge variety of them you can raise. More so, in the winter time if you have a sunny window, you can put a root in partial water and will will grow greens for you through the winter. The Sweet Potato is mistakenly called yams.. well… that’s not originally true. More than a century ago the marketing decision was made to call Sweet Potatoes “yams” because true yams, of the Discorea genus, were widely eaten. That moved into common language and now, wrongly, the Sweet Potates are sold as yams and true yams are sold as yams, but rarely canned in this country. To make things worse in other countries the root of the edible  Oxalis tuberosa, is also called a yam.

Another white and red combo is rare so no picture, Ipomoea macrorhiza (large root) a perennial vine from large tuber. The rare night-flowering morning glory is found in coastal areas of the southeastern US. It was presumably introduced from the Yucatan by aboriginal inhabitants before Columbus. Found on Indian shell middens, large roots were cooked, might be edible raw. Plant has attractive crinkled foliage and large white to pale pink flowers which bloom at night like moonflower, which is up next.

Ipomoea alba, Beach Moonflower

We keep the large white flower but abandon the ruby throat. We have two examples which are very similar. The first is Ipomoea alba (eep-oh-MEE-uh AL-buh, white) a night-blooming morning glory with a very fragrant, luxurious flower. Its sepals are mucronate ( that is having a fine point often rising abruptly at the tip.) Note it is a white flower without any color in the throat — okay a little yellow maybe — though it has a five-star like greenish wrinkling or folding on the top of the blossom, technically called midpetaline bands. The leaves are heart-shaped. Nicknamed, Moonflower, the young leaves and fleshy calyces are edible when cooked. They can be boiled or steamed. They can also be dried for later use.  Seeds edible when young. Incidentally, it takes the flower about a minute to open. It is also sometimes called Calonyction album. The raw leaves can be used like soap. Looking nearly identical is the Ipomoea tuba, (eep-oh-MEE-uh TOO-bah

I. tuba, aka Beach Moonflower, has has thicker leaves than the I. alba and likes a coastal environment, such as mangrove swamps. It is used the same was as I. alba. I. tuba is found from about St. Petersburg Fl. south on the west coast of Florida. To help identify it from the I. alba where their range overlap the sepals of the I. tuba are NOT pointed but are round and blunt.  Incidentally the white sap of the I. alba and I. tuba might cause dermatitis and was used in the early rubber-making process. “Tuba” in Dead Latin means trumpet. Ipomoea macrantha (ma-cra-ANN-tha, large flowered)  not pictured, also looks similar to I. alba and can be used the same way as I. alba.

Ipomoea lacunosa, Whitestar Potato

Do you remember the first Ipomoea in this article, the I. pandurata, the Wild Potato Vine? The Whitestar Potato is similar except small white flowers and heartshaped leaves.  The cooked root of the Ipomoea lacunosa, was eaten by American Indians in central and eastern North America and California. Also consumed were the young roots of the Ipomoea leptophylla , boiled or roasted. Roots over three-years-old were not eaten. I. plummerae (which has grass-like leaves) was another cooked root food of the Amerindians.

Calystegia sepium, Hedge Bindweed

The Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium) has small white flowers often without a red throat. It has triangle shaped leaves and climbs counter clockwise. The bindweed stalks, young shoots and root are edible cooked, green parts steamed or boiled, roots boiled. However, it can be purgative so regular eating of said is not recommended. The name is from the Greek kalyx (calyx) and stegon (cover), referring to the bracts that conceal the calyx, pronounced kal-ee-STEE-jee-uh or kal-ee-STEG-ee-uh.  Sepium, SEE-pee-um, of the hedges. The blossoms can also have a pinkish tinge.

Ipomoea violacea, Morning Glory

The Ipomoea violacea (vye-o-LAY-see-uh, violet) is a bit of a chameleon, it can range in color from white to blue under cultivation (aka Ipomoea tricolor) but in the wild it tends to be violet. It’s used the same way as the I. alba, that is young leaves and fleshy calyces are edible when cooked. They can be boiled or steamed. They can also be dried for later use.  Seeds edible when young, cooked. Raw leaves can be used like soap. This is the Morning Glory of drug culture fame. The raw seeds have a little amount of a crude form of LSD.

Ipomoea cairica, Mile a Minute Vine

 Ipomoea cairica, (KY-rik-uh, from Cairo) is naturalized from Africa. Called the Mile-A-Minute-Vine it has edible roots and stems though they are slightly bitter and both are slightly cyanogenetic.  Its flowers range from violet-purple to light pink to white with a pink  or red throat. The leaves while called ivy-like look more palm-like to me with deep lobes of five to seven. Roots were boiled, or, grated then roasted, no doubt to drive off the cyanide. The fruit of the I. cairica (holding the seeds) is used as a soap, just crushed against the skin and water applied. It creates a lather.  Animals known to eat the plant raw include giraffes, goats, rabbits, guinea-pigs, and pigs. It is apparently toxic to horses.

Ipomoea pes-caprae, Railroad Vine

Ipomoea pes-caprae (goat foot) or Railroad Vine, Beach Morning Glory and Goat’s Foot Morning Glory, is often found on the sandy seashore. Its cooked roots, stems and leaves can be eaten in small amounts as a famine food. It is extremely common and usually the only Morning Glory found along the eastern shore of Florida, literally on the beach. One of its claims to fame is that it can reach 100 feet long or more.

Ipomoea quamoclit, Cypress VIne

According to Kew Gardens also eaten are the cooked leaves of the Cypress Vine, Ipomoea quamoclit (KWAH-moe-klit, the Mexican name),  though they may make you sleepy and are cyanogenic. They definitely must be boiled. Leaves of the Ipomoea obscura (ob-SCUR-ah, dark) are eaten either in soups or as a cooked vegetable, and leaves of the Ipomoea involucrata are eaten cooked like a green. (in-vol-yoo-KRAY-ta, a reference to its bracts.)  Some subspecies are more forgiving on the gastrointestinal track. On the other side of the world the Ipomoea digitata (finger-like) has edible oblong tubers and leaves when cooked. It is not found in the Americas.

Ipomoea digitata, Vidhari Kand

There are several hundred species in the Morning Glory group and it is suspected that most of them have edible leaves and other parts. But don’t guess. Check out your local species with an expert.

Seeds of the I. tricolor, I. pandurata, I. nil, I. violacea and I. tuba have been used for their hallucinogenic properties. In the state of Louisiana the I. tuba became illegal in 2005 to cultivate for any purpose other than ornamental. A close relative of the Ipomoea is the Jicama, which has toxic seeds. All part of that plant above ground have high amounts of rotenone, a fish killer.

The genus name, Ipomoea, is mangled Greek via Dead Latin. Ipo is often said to come from Ips and means worm but that’s just linguistic illiteracy among botany professors. To say it means “worm” is stretching it. The basic word is Ipo which means below, beneath or under. Homoios is perverted via Dead Latin as well. The basic word in Greek is omoio not homoios. It means “similarity.”  Ipomoea means “resembling underground” as in the sprawl of a root, or perhaps the tunnels of a worm.  Batata is going to take some explaining:

When Columbus landed on Haiti the natives there, the Tainos (Arawaks) called the root “batatas” which literally means potato. The Spanish changed that to Patatas. When the Spanish later saw the white potato they called that Patatas as well. That changed in English to potato. So, the white potato was named after the Batatas and became potato but now in English we call Batatas the Sweet Potato. And worse, of course, is calling the Sweet Potato a yam, which it is not. Yams are from a totally different family, the Dioscorea.

Henbit, brief salad green of spring

Henbit: Springtime Salad Green and More

It was a zig and a zag for me. I heard the name as an edible for many years and saw the plant often but never put the two together until one spring I was picking chickweed and saw this plant yet again and decided to look it up then give it a try. Now it is one of those great little edibles of spring.

Note heart-shaped scalloped leaves that grasp the stem

The henbit is a member of the mint family. If you remember from my first blog and my second video all mints that smell like a mint and look like a mint are edible, but they must do both. There are a lot of mints that do not smell minty, some of them are edible and some of them are not. In fact, some of the mints can make you ill.  Henbit does not smell minty, but it is an edible mint.  By they way, there are no poisonous look alikes. As for toxicity, we’re safe but it has causes “staggers” in sheep, horses, and cattle.

Its botanical name, Lamium amplexicaule (LAM-ee-um am-plex-i-kaw-lee) causes much confusion. As usual, there isn’t much problem with the species name, amplexicaule, which means “clasping” or in this case how the leaves grab the stem. It’s the genus name, Lamium, that causes problems. Most writers say it is Greek through Latin then define it to means a thin layer, plate or scale, or in this case the corolla tube between two lips. Unfortunately, that is not correct. And at this point remember that another common name for Henbit is Giraffe Head.

Edible Dead Nettle has triangle shaped leaves

“Lamina” is Latin, from which we get the English word “laminate.” It would be fine to say “Lamium” comes from the Latin word “Lamina.” But when you say it comes from Greek Lamium would come from a totally different word, “Lamia.”  “Lamia” was the name of grotesque creatures in Greek mythology and means “female man-eater.”  The little flower can resemble creatures, if you have an imagination.

The common name, Henbit, is like chickweed and comes from watching chickens liking it. They’re not alone. Humming birds like it, too, but for nectar, and Henbit can be used for erosion control.

Henbit can sometimes be confused with Purple Dead Nettle, above, which is also edible. The difference in the two can be seen in the leaves. Henbit has heart-shaped leaves with big scalloped edges that grow along the entire length of the stem. The Purple Dead Nettle (dead in this case means not stinging) has more triangular shaped leaves that grow in a big clumps. Both are very nutritious, high in iron, vitamins and fiber. The seeds of the Purple Dead Nettle, Lamium purpureum, (LAM-ee-um  per-PER-ee-um)  have antioxidants and presumably the L. amplexicaule would as well.

As an aside, I have a tenuous connection with Lamium purpureum. Purpureum is Latin for purple, and of course, was taken from a Greek word for a particular shellfish. In Roman times purple dye was extremely expensive, and only the royal family and senators and the like could afford it. It was expensive because the dye had to be collected from tiny saltwatershellfish in Greece, the porphyra. More so, only the miniscule anal gland of porphyra had the purple dye so it took tens of thousands of them to make enough dye to dye clothes. (It does make one wonder who noticed the purple color in the first place.)  In

Gythio, Greece, ancient exporter of purple dye

Gythio, in southern Peloponnesos, there still stands the little ruins where the Greeks made that dye thousands of years ago. It’s directly beside the main road into town from Sparta and would be dismissed as trash if not for the a little clearing and a sign. My ancestors are from that area. Who knows, maybe one of them crush some shellfish so some important person of the day could have a purple robe. In fact, my Greek family name can be poetically translated into “master gardener.” A more literal  translation is “Caesar of the Hoe.”  One linguistic factorid: Did you know “caesar” means bald?

Henbit has been an esteemed vegetable for a long time. Their mild, sweet taste stands in contrast to the crisp leaves usually put in salads. John Gerard, the English herbalist for whom the Geradia is named, wrote of Henbit some 400 years ago: “The floures are baked with sugar as Roses are, which is called Sugar roset: as also the distilled water of them, which is used to make the heart merry, to make a good colour in the face, and to refresh the vitall spirits.”

Don’t confuse henbit with Ground Ivy, Glechoma hederacea, above left, which has much larger flowers.  It, however, is also edible is small amounts, raw or cooled, and the leaves are used for tea. Ground Ivy leaves are also made into aromatic sauces.

SPICY HENBIT

Chop four cups of shoots, cover with water, boil 10 minutes. In a separate pan melt three tablespoons butter, add one teaspoon curry powder, two whole cloves, and a quarter teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Stir and cook for one minute, stir in two tablespoons of flour and cook one more minute. Add a half a cup of boiling water from the Henbit, stir until smooth. Drain and add the boiled Henbit  and 3.4 cup sour cream. Cook on low for 15 minutes.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Multiple square stems from a taproot, to six to eighteen inches, purplish near bottom,  greenish near stop. above. spreads indefinitely in all directions, leaves opposite, hairy, scalloped, flower pale pink to purple to red, spotted on lower lip, no aroma, tiny purple hairs on the upper part of the flowers. Don’t mistake for ground ivy which is hairless.

TIME OF YEAR: Springtime in temperate climes, February and March in Florida, found throughout North America into arctic circle.

ENVIRONMENT: Waste ground, lawns, cultivated fields, pastures, roadsides, railroads, can created a bed of purple. Tolerates most soils and conditions.  Can grow under shrubs where grass won’t.

METHOD OF PREPARATIOIN: Young leaves, raw or cooked, added to salads or as a potherb. No poisonous look alikes. Stems and flowers are edible, too.

The spine-covered trunk of a Hercule’s Club

Hercules’ Club: Zanthoxylum Clava-Herculis

Hercule’s Club Berries

I sometimes feel sorry for my neighbors, who have lawns of decapitated grass. I’m sure my wild-looking but well-planned yard bothers them but I have the yard of the future, and they of the past.

When I moved into this cul-de-sac house a dozen years ago, it was 1960s suburbanized, read lots of august Augustine lawn, obligatory dwarf legustrums, sago palms (cockroach high rises) and no privet privacy. Since then I’ve managed to get rid of most of the lawn and standard drudgery shrubbery. In their place is an edible landscape, including numerous trees. Every bit of green I’ve planted is consumable in some way, from Amaranth to Zanthoxylum, the latter a  magnificent Hercules Club, now some 30 feet high.

 

Thorny foliage smells like toothache drops

The full botanical name for the Hercules Club is Zanthoxylum clava-herculis, which in bastardized Greek — my term for Latin  — means “yellow wood club of Hercules.”  The roots of The Club are indeed yellow but very weak, not at all Herculean. They are easily broken by hand. Quite odorous, they also appear to be barkless. The “clava” part, the club, comes from Hercules’ weapon of choice,  a club that grew spikes, and the Zanthoxylum has spikes: All over its trunk and branches. Mythology aside, The Club has been used to treat toothaches for thousands of years, with a natural kind of topical novacaine found in all parts to varying degrees.  The Club also has chelerythrine, which in the lab is effective against  resistant staphylococcus, a little nasty bug one picks up in hospitals.

The Club protects itself

American natives used The Club,  for a range of ailments.  A bark decoction was used for venereal disease; the bark, wood and leaves for toothaches, and a decoction of boiled roots was also used to increase perspiration. Indians and settlers mixed the inner bark with bear fat and used it as a poultice for ulcers and a treatment for itches.  Ripe berries were seeped in hot water to make a spray used in the mouth and blown on the chest and throat for chest ailments.  The bark was also used for inflammations of the throat.

What its leaves, bark and roots, taste and smell like is a matter of subjective debate. Some say its smells like lime, others bitter lime. To me it smells just like Ambersol, the toothache application you can buy in drug stores…or …Anbesol smells like The Club. The tree is also covered with thorns which means kids and other climbing animals leave it alone. One creature, however, that is not deterred by the thorns is the the larvae of the giant swallowtail butterfly (Papilio cresphontes). All stages of the caterpillar like the tree. The Club

Late spring blossoms

blooms in early spring. In fact, as I write it is late February and it is readying to blossom. Each tiny flower turns into a fruit that dries and splits to reveal a shiny black seed, see photo upper right. Some folks use the seeds of closely related species, the Prickly Ash (Z. americanum) like hot peppercorns, and some think the seeds from The Club can be used the same way.  Personally I don’t think so. Z. clava-herculis
seeds taste medicinal to me, not peppery. I also boiled and dried them as recommend. Again mildly medicinal, no pepper.  Some however, heat the seeds in salt then use the salt and seeds as a dipping material.

Surprisingly, The Club is cousin to the non-native citrus. Small world.  My particular tree has travelled quite a lot. It was first rescued as a sapling from a bull dozer in Daytona Beach in the early ’90s, Port Orange to be specific. It then spent a few years in Lake Mary, Fl., and a clone from that tree is now in Maitland, some 70 miles from where it started.  One doesn’t see them too often but when you do there are usually several around, like a dispersed colony. The national champion  is 7.5 feet around, 38 feet high, and currently residing in Little Rock, Ar., USA. Its name is said: zan-THOCK-sill-lum CLAY-va-her-KEW-lis.

Florida Orangegrass

 

Incidentally, if you live in The South there is a grass that can also ease the pain of a toothache, Florida Orangegrass, Ctenium floridanum. (TEN-ee-um flor-re-DAY-um, from the Greek xteni, hah-TEN-nee, meaning comb, read all the seed heads on one side.)

My Club shades my Florida Room, below, which has a trash-bin granite floor ( notice my helper, Oliver Whitecat, in the chair.) Tons of broken and end-pieces granite are thrown away every day. All one has to do is a little dumpster diving to get it. In this case a few early Sunday mornings. Not only do I have a granite floor, but four walkways as well. Now that’s recycling!

One last thing: It is related to Szechuan pepper.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

Florida room

IDENTIFICATION: Young growth covered with spikes, leaves alternate, pinnately compound, 7-9 narrowly elliptical to lanceolate leaflets with round-pointed teeth, waxy-shiny above, light green below, 5-8 inches overall

TIME OF YEAR: Inner bark available year round, leaves except for winter. Seeds, summer.

ENVIRONMENT: Well-drained, dry sandy spots, full sun to some shade.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Leaves and inner bark for topical use against toothaches.  Fruit might be used like pepper but this is not an endorsement of that practice. Some heat the seeds in salt (in the oven) and use the mix as a dipping material (like a sauce.) A potentially toxic tree, approach accordingly.