Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 181 



GROUND NUT; WILD BEAN (Apios tuberosa) is 



an exceedingly beautiful climbing vine, attaining 

 lengths of four or five feet, crawling over walls or 

 fences, or twisting itself about shrubs or other plants. 

 Its pear-shaped, tuberous root is edible, as every 

 country boy knows. 



While it does not prey upon plants by sucking 

 their juices, as some of the climbing, twining vines 

 do, this species sometimes entwines itself so tightly 

 about its supporting plant as to retard the latter's 

 growth or even to kill it. One of the most unique 

 floral sights, that I recall, is that of many large 

 Tiger Lilies, with their tall stout stalks entwined 

 with the present species, and each of them in full 

 flower. 



The leaves of the Ground Nut are compounded of 

 five, or sometimes seven, ovate-pointed leaflets; they 

 are toothless, smooth and light green. The flowers 

 grow in dense, rounded clusters on slender stalks 

 from between the angles of the leaves and the plant 

 stem; they are maroon or lilac-brown, -have very 

 broad, reflexed standards and long scythe-shaped 

 keels, strongly incurved or coiled. The flowers have 

 a very rich coloring, different from that of any other 

 species that I have ever seen. We find the Ground 

 Nut in bloom during August and September in damp 

 ground, usually on the borders of swamps or wet 

 meadows, from N. B. to Minn, and southwards to the 

 Gulf. 



WILD or HOG PEANUT (Amphicarpa monoica) is 

 a dainty, trailing vine 2 to 7 feet long. The delicate, 

 light green leaves are thrice compounded, on slender 

 stems from the angles of which are small, drooping 

 clusters of magenta-lilac blossoms. Other fruitful 

 blossoms at the base of the plant develop into pear- 

 shaped pods with single large seeds. From the fact 

 that hogs used to root up and eat these, came the 

 rather inappropriate name. 



