This week for Flora and Fauna Friday, we have a beautiful, and edible, wildflower. This week we’re getting a taste for Wild Sweet Potato (Ipomoea pandurata), also known as Man-of-the-Earth or Bigroot Morning-glory.
Bigroot Morning-glory is a perennial twining vine in the Morning-glory family, Convolvulaceae. They prefer partial shade but can tolerate full sun and heavy shade. Everything about Bigroot Morning-glory is big. Bigroot Morning-glory climbs up shrubs, bushes, and trees and can reach over 25 feet in height. Their leaves are quite large and heart-shaped on a thin vine. The best way to recognize this vine is by its flowers. In the summer, it bears huge, white, funnel-shaped flowers with a magenta center. These flowers are often over 6 inches in diameter and provide nectar to both bees and butterflies. In the winter, the vine dies back to its roots and then returns in mid-spring. These roots form large tubers that can weigh over 20 pounds!
Wild Sweet Potato belongs to the genus Ipomoea, which contains most of our native species of Morning-Glory. Ipomoea also contains most of our exotic and ornamental Morning-Glories, including the real Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas) which is a native to South America. Just like true Sweet Potato, Wild Sweet Potato has edible, tuberous roots. However, they don’t taste nearly as good and require some more preparation to be palatable.
