Apios priceana B.L. Rob.

Price's Potato Bean; Kentucky Groundnut; Traveler's Delight

Vine

Perennial

Vascular

Price's Potato Bean is a native herbaceous vining perennial in the Bean family (Fabaceae). It is found in Tennessee Valley region of north Alabama and in the Black Belt area of central Alabama. Price's Potato Bean grows in rich hardwood forests, on slopes, and in ravines in areas underlain by limestone. Price's Potato Bean is a perennial from a large starchy tuber. Several twining vines up to 15 feet in length are produced from each tuber. The vines are greenish yellow in color, glabrous or with scattered stiff hairs, and have alternate leaves. The leaves are petiolate, pinnately compound, with 5-9 leaflets. The leaflets are ovate to lanceolate in outline, pubescent on the lower surface, and have entire margins. The leaflets are widest below the middle and taper to narrow points. The basal pair of leaflets are the largest. Flowers are produced in racemes from the leaf axils. The stalks of the racemes are thick and pubescent. Individual flowers are pink and white or greenish in color. The fruit is a cylindrical legume. The large starch tubers are edible either raw or baked. Price's Potato Bean is listed as an S2 species in Alabama (typically 6 to 20 occurrences, few remaining individuals, acres, or miles of stream, or factors demonstrably making it very vulnerable in the state), and globally as a G2 species (imperiled globally because of rarity (6 - 20 occurrences, or few remaining acres, or miles of stream) or very vulnerable to extinction throughout its range because of other factors). It was listed as a Threatened Species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on January 5, 1990.--A. Diamond

Listed as <a href="https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/profile/speciesProfile?spcode=Q1SW">Federally Threatened</a> as of 5 Jan 1990.</a>

Native Threatened-State Threatened-US S2 (State Rank) G2 (Global Rank)

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