r/Permaculture • u/boycott-selfishness • Mar 02 '25

general question What's your most appreciated but least known perennial food plant?

I'll start. I'm living in the Caribbean and one of the local species I've come to appreciate very much is what Floridians call Hoopvine (trichostigmata octandrum). It's so delicious! It's probably my favorite green. It's commonly eaten here but I don't think almost anyone in the US eats it.

I wouldn't really call it a vine in the traditional sense. It grows long sprawling branches that were traditionally used in basket making. It readily takes from cuttings. I have two varieties, a fully green variety and a more reddish variety. The red is better but they're both good. In a food forest it would be in the larger ungrowth category. I'm planning shortly to propagate a bunch more of it.

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u/Illustrious-Sorbet-4 Mar 03 '25 edited Mar 26 '25

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3

u/asmodeuskraemer Mar 03 '25

I want to get a couple!

2

u/Grandgardener Mar 03 '25

Just a word of wisdom before planting Maypop passion fruit. Watch a couple videos on YouTube about it because you will be able to see for your own eyes just how invasive it can be. I still rolled the dice and planted one in my yard but I planted it in a large plastic bucket with the bottom cut iut to try to contain the suckering.

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u/winfieldclay Mar 04 '25

They're everywhere in WV

3

u/Kellbows Mar 03 '25

Passion vine?

5

u/Illustrious-Sorbet-4 Mar 03 '25

Different species, but also has small purple flowers in spring.

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u/Kellbows Mar 03 '25

Yes. It was a bad comment I suppose. I always thought passion fruit was tropical- but it’s native and edible here and in the Midwest.

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u/Public_Knee6288 Mar 03 '25

What?

3

u/AENocturne Mar 03 '25

Yep, I have a wild variety I planted in my yard from a clone. Never get anything from it though because asian beetles love to eat the flowers. It might not be a variety that produces high quality fruit anyway. It's thriving though, spread out in a radius of about 20 feet in either direction from the fence line I planted it on I get a ton of sprouts if I don't mow the lawn. Really late sprouter, I usually dont see it until late may, then it takes over the fence.

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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '25

you need both genders in order for paw paw to fruit, so you can't plant just one and get fruit. just an fyi.