hey guys!

[jblake]

hey guys, just wanted to introduce myself.i'm a brunswick county native and grew up in the southport area.my intrests r everything nature! southport was a very small place back when i was a kid, so i spent most of my life in the woods.( that was oh somewhere between 30 and 40 yrs ago, haha) most of my knowlege is native plants,insects,animals and mushrooms(wild edibles).                                                                                                                                             i do have something that is stumping me though-i recently found what looks like wisteria americana but it has wine colored flowers.is it something else or a variety u just don't see often?                                                                                                                                               anyways thanks , and look forward to talking to u guys!

[Will Cook]

Welcome, jblake! Brunswick County is a great place for rare plants and butterflies. The American Wisteria (Wisteria frutescens) blooms in late April and has lavender-violet colored flowers. I'm not sure what kind of wine you mean by wine-colored, but I've never seen much variation in them.

[jblake]

yeah, i'll try to get a picture of it this weekend. that color is hard to desribe haha

[jblake]

i was unable to get a picture of this flower over the weekend but maybe i can describe it better. everything about the plant looks just like wisteria, pinate leaves and all. blooming now,and the flower is in a drupe just like wisteria, but only about 4in. long the very young seed pods look long and slender. if u were to take a red wine and smear it on white paper thats the color of the flower. sort of a brownish red purple if that makes since. what could this be? any guesses out there?

[JQ Public]

I think I found it

It's called apios americana.







It is native to the US including NC!

http://www.missouriplants.com/Redalt/Apios_americana_page.html

Per wikipedia,

Apios americana, sometimes called the potato bean, hopniss, Indian potato or groundnut (but not to be confused with other plants sometimes known by the name groundnut) is a perennial vine native to eastern North America, and bears edible beans and large edible tubers. It grows to 3-4 m long, with pinnate leaves 8-15 cm long with 5-7 leaflets. The flowers are red-brown to purple, produced in dense racemes. The fruit is a legume (pod) 6-12 cm long.

The tubers are crunchy and nutritious, with a high content of starch and especially protein. The plant was one of the most important food plants of pre-European North America, and is now being developed for domestication.

[jblake]

yep! thats it! thanks alot, it was driving me nuts! maybe i didn't find a new wisteria color, but this plant is cool because of it's history and i love wild edibles. i'll defenatly grow it and check it out!