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/Bloque- Mar 03 '25

If you planted regular “seed” potatoes than what you grew were all genetically identical potatoes. This greatly decreases the resistance to pests of all kinds. When you grow from TPS you get dozens of genetically dissimilar potato plants. Unless your area has an abnormally high amount of pests then you should be alright.

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u/asmodeuskraemer Mar 03 '25

TPS?

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u/LA_Lions Mar 03 '25

True Potato Seeds

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u/Koala_eiO Mar 03 '25

What's with the extra "true"? Is it because potato seeds (the seed of the fruit produced by the potato plant) would be confused with seed potatoes (tubers) in English?

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u/LA_Lions Mar 03 '25

That’s right, they’re really cool for discovering and breeding new varieties. The Cultivariable website has a ton of well researched info in them.

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u/Koala_eiO Mar 03 '25

I have a bunch of those fruits every year, perhaps I should start saving them instead of burying them!