{"id":3879,"date":"2014-05-01T01:40:58","date_gmt":"2014-05-01T05:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/muchachopolaco.com\/?p=3879"},"modified":"2014-05-01T01:40:58","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T05:40:58","slug":"ornamental-sweet-potato-vine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/muchachopolaco.com\/?p=3879","title":{"rendered":"ornamental sweet potato vine?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

Identifying plants online is a difficult task. I have no idea how one would do this before the internet. I have been trying to identify the vine I have been growing (with unusual success!) in the front yard (I killed them all in the backyard). I think I was FINALLY able to identify it today.<\/p>\n

Previously I had thought they were some form of ivy. I don’t think that was even remotely close. I think what I have is a sweet potato vine. The leaves and the stems look identical. And the variants also match the variants that I have – the different shaped black leaves.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

The above photo looks like a perfect match of both variants that I have. However, these vines are supposed to produce sweet potatoes (even the ornamental variety). I haven’t had them too terribly long (perhaps 4-5 months now) and I’ve not seen anything like a potato forming. Supposedly this is something that occurs in the fall though.<\/p>\n

The articles I’ve found recommend it as a decorative ground covering or potted plant, which is precisely what it is used for here. I’ve been growing volumes of it in the front yard for a ground cover for plants I’ve grown in between the vine. It does in fact provide a wonderful ground cover from the 100+ Spring temperatures.<\/p>\n

Another interesting note is that the leaves and vines (of the non-ornamental variety) are not only described as edible, but having health benefits. I had a hard time getting it to grow at first. I think I’ve now mastered the process. It is now growing at an impressive rate. I have to trim it back nearly daily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Identifying plants online is a difficult task. I have no idea how one would do this before the internet. I have been trying to identify the vine I have been growing (with unusual success!) in the front yard (I killed … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/muchachopolaco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/muchachopolaco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/muchachopolaco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/muchachopolaco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/muchachopolaco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/muchachopolaco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/muchachopolaco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/muchachopolaco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/muchachopolaco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}