Naughty corner

The talet seeds I got from Radix in March have done well. I wrote a blog entry about them at the time. I planted some of the plants out under a young apple tree, between some Belville sorrel plants.

It has all got a bit jungly now and I can't see if it has produced any underground pods, but it has seemed quite happy growing up its cane.

The others got a place in my cramped polytunnel in what I came to think of as the naughty corner. I have a soft spot for the weird and wonderful like achocha and bottle gourds, which are pretty vigorous.

The talet was tucked in between these two bullies and in spite of a pretty random watering regime produced quite a lot of flowers and pods.

Again, I don't know if it has produced underground seeds, it would be difficult as the ground cover would stop the flowers going underground.

Talet, like it is

These seeds arrived in the post today from Owen of Radix. His blog is the most entertaining one I know of. Also known as the American Hog Peanut, Amphicarpaea bracteata is native to eastern North America and was a popular food of native Americans. It can reproduce either by flowers which open and are pollinated, or by cleistogamous flowers (which develop into seeds without opening, following self-pollination). The cleistogamous flowers can be above ground or below ground. The seed pods are both above and below ground. It will be interesting to see how they do here. I would love them to naturalise in the woods. I have potted them up in the polytunnel and will pamper them this year.