Perennial Plant Profiles

Amphicarpa bracteata, Hog Peanut

We can think of at least 180 great forest garden & perennial crops for cold climate Sweden.  Want to hear about them? Over the course of the next year we will profile 5 a week on the blog. Perennial plants and crops offer a low energy, oil & resource input based foundation for future-proof agricultures. By default if an agriculture is to be called regenerative the bottom line is that it must be soil building, not soil depleting. Relentless deep tillage & poor soil husbandry (wifery?!) contributes to the majority of the 24 billion tons of topsoil lost every year on planet water.  We are going to be focused on holistic polyculture grazing and perennial production at ridgedale over most of the site as this represents the most effective way to restore our degraded landscape, produce high value produce and ensure the future resource base we are managing holistically for in our decision making. 

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Genus Amphicarpa
Species bracteata 
Common Name hog peanut
Form herb
Habit running
Origin North America
Light sun to shade
Moisture dry to mesic
Edible Beans
Nitrogen yes
Groundcover yes

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USDA distribution map

Hog peanut is not going to do well outside where we are, but could make an interesting groundcover in our planned earth sunken greenhouse system.  There it would benefit from the moderated temperature from the earth, to which we will continue our experiments with Jean Pain compost, which could heat the space. It's not a serious food crop, but with Nitrogen fixing capacity it's an interesting and unfamiliar one for experimentation.

The seed can be eaten raw or cooked. Two types of seed are produced - flowers produced near the ground produce a pod that buries itself just below soil level. These pods contain a single seed are up to 15mm in diameter which can be used as a peanut substitute. They can be harvested throughout the winter and can be eaten raw or cooked. They are sweet and delicious raw with a taste that is more like shelled garden beans than peanuts. Yields are rather low, and it can be a fiddle finding the seeds, but they do make a very pleasant and nutritious snack. Other flowers higher up the plant produce seed pods that do not bury themselves. The seeds in these pods are much smaller and are usually cooked before being eaten. They can be used in all the same ways as lentils and are a good source of protein. The overall crop of these seeds is rather low and they are also fiddly to harvest. The root is peeled, boiled and then eaten. 

An infusion of the root has been used in the treatment of diarrhoea. Externally, the root has been applied to bites from rattlesnakes. A poultice of the pulverized leaves has been applied with any salve to swellings.

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Amphicarpa bracteata

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