Re: the climbing potato

 

len gardener wrote:

Hope so.
Madeira Vine (Anredera cordifolia) is also called Potato Vine and it is
a major pest of urban bushland. Has the habit of growing profusely up
and over bushes, shrubs and small trees. Eventually the weight of the
fleshy leaves just pulls everything to the ground and the other plant
dies. Major pest to remove as you either max soil toxicity or spend year
after year grubbing out the roots, etc.

 

you're right. has nothing to do with the plant they're talking about - but
it took a few posts to realise it!

leslie

 

John Savage wrote:

Has anyone else had any success chasing this down?
Nothing on ABC radio sites.

There is a major environmental pest Madeira Vine (Andredera cordifolia)
that is also called potato vine that Les Robinson's Field Guide to the
Native Plants of Sydney, says is native to South America and that the
aerial tubers are eaten in Mexico and Southern Europe. Having pulled
tons of it out of Sydney bushland, I can tell you it doesn't produce
much edible matter.

http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/bird/isabella/hawaii/chapter10.html
talks about a Climbing Potato Fern in Hawaii

Seems to be something in web pages in ZA (South Africa), but I can not
always load them. This would kill the Australian Native side.

http://www.botany.unp.ac.za/rcpgd/eb_traditional_medicine.htm  mentions #
Bowiea volubilis  (English: climbing potato, Zulu: igibisila, gifisila).

http://www.gardeningeden.co.za/altmedical.html  also mentions Bowiea
volubilis. So it definitely isn't a native.

This gives some cultivation info on Bowiea volubilis (also called sea
-onion somewhere else)
http://florawww.eeb.uconn.edu/acc_num/198501019.html

http://www.merriments.co.uk/plantlist_l_z.htm  talks about Crispum
glasnevin (hint species is lower case) Climbing potato

And this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/860.shtml
indentifies it as a Cilean Potato Tree.


So, I've come to the conclusion that it might all be a furphy at best
and Madeira vine at worst.

 

ok vincent back to you mate,

i did a google and got zilch meaningful info' apart from there is some
vine thingy with heart shaped leaves in the land of the grass skirts
and then their is a fern with the same name so figure it aint the
fern.

my appatite is wetted, waiting with baited breath.

ta

len

snipped
--
happy gardening
'it works for me it could work for you,'

"in the end ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do" but consider others and the
environment
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gardenlen1/

my e/mail addies have spam filters you should know what to delete before you
send.

 



I think that one you refer to is in the Deadly Nightshade family