Hog Peanut
Amphicarpaea bracteata
A slender twining woodland legume that produces two kinds of flower: showy pale ones above ground, and self-pollinating ones on threadlike runners at soil level whose single large seed gives the plant its name. Fixes nitrogen, hosts several skippers, and is light enough never to smother what it climbs. Those buried seeds are edible raw or cooked and taste more like a shelled garden bean than the peanut they are named for, though the yield is small.
- Family
- Fabaceae
- Type
- vine
- Lifespan
- annual
- Height
- 3–8 ft
- Spacing
- 1–3 ft apart
- Light
- part shade, shade
- Soil moisture
- moist
- Soil pH
- neutral
- Bloom
- August, September
- Bloom colors
- white, pink, purple
- Wildlife value
- butterflies, larval host
- Landscape uses
- groundcover, naturalizing
- Native states
- AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI, WV, WY