365 urban species: #280: Groundnut.

Photos by urbpan. Location: on the rhododendron shrubs in the TJ Maxx parking lot, Allston.

Urban species #280: Groundnut Apios americana

One of the ways this project has been good for me, is that I am constantly scrutinizing every living thing I see, and trying to determine what it is. If I see something unfamiliar, it immediately becomes a quest, a mission to identify and understand. Of course, this was something I was prone to do before this year, but the 365 Urban Species project lends a sense of urgency to my natural desire to know the living things sharing the city with me. Another benefit has been a heightened alertness of the passing of time, and of the cycle of the year. When I encountered this flower I thought that I was done seeing new flowers for the year, and that the remaining days would find me hurrying to write about trees before their last leaves fell, and searching out insects on the warmer winter days.

I was surprised again, when I learned that this plant is native to our area. Surely a creeping weed sprawled on the rhododendron shrubs in the parking lot of a strip mall is an invasive--but no. Groundnut is a climbing legume, naturally found east of the rockies. Both the seedpods and the starchy roots of the plant are edible, and were used by Native Americans. There are apparently plans afoot to develop a cultivated variety for food production.