Has anyone on here grown clove bean, Ipomoea muricata? I’m trying it out for the first time this year. I have two varieties. One I was told has white flowers and the other purple. The white flowered seeds are twice as big as the purple.
So far easy peesy germination on the white. I just put the purple to soak today. I’m pretty sure these will direct sew no problem but I’m trying out both for my first go. I’d love to hear if anyone has grown or eaten these before!
The clove beans are growing rapidly. First They sprung out huge cotyledons & then started putting on a couple of inches a day. So far they look just like morning glories and my plant app identifies them as Ipomoea alba. I suppose the difference will be clear when they grow their ‘beans.’
I ordered a 3rd set of seeds of the purple flowering variety and they are large like the white ones so the smaller size of the seeds apparently is not related to the variety. I soaked a few of the new ones but neglected to nick the seed coat and they are sitting in the water not absorbing anything so it seems that’s a necessary step.
These ended up growing fantastically for me last year. No trouble with heat pests drought etc. My biggest challenge was my ducks who were completely obsessed with them and ate down anything they could reach.
In total I think I had 4 different seed sources. I didn’t keep good track of which was which but the green ones (white flower) were much more plentiful than the purple. I saved seeds from the mix and direct sewed this year as I didn’t see much difference in bloom time last year with the ones I started early. I suspect some daylight sensitivity.
For starting seeds I found it best to nick the hard seed coat but not soak and then avoid excessive moisture.
I found the pods tasty and easy to add into stir fry’s and other random dishes. They have a fairly neutral taste, mildly crunchy texture with small amount of sticky sap when raw. No complaints from children/other family members when I added them into recipes. I did make some recipes that featured them heavily but didn’t love them as much when they made up the primary ingredient.
I have tried to find information on the edibility of the leaves without much luck. They were definitely prolific so it would be nice to know.
I also came across interesting info on the sap being antibacterial and used successfully in a commercial ointment called Tonkin.
Overall this is a super interesting plant/vegetable that I’m surprised doesn’t have more of a following for southern gardeners especially.
I notice that Ipomoea muricata is called “prickly morning glory” sometimes. Does it have any sharp, poky parts on the plant?
“False thorns”? I’m curious about what that means.
I was thinking those were leaf buds. Are they not?
No, they’re not leaf buds, just bumps that look like they could be thorns but they weren’t sharp at all. Which is a good thing because you do have to poke around in the vines a bit to get the pods.
Huh! Well, that seems all right, then. I wonder why such a thing evolved?
Hmm. I don’t know enough about that botanically to say. I could see non sharp prickle bumps somehow helping the plant with its climbing etc… or it could be that they used to be sharp but it was selected out in domestication. With chayote for instance, there are some that have spines that will actually hurt you and others that are either completely spineless. The kind I grow look like . they have spines but they’re soft and harmless.
Does the plant climb well? If so, that would be nifty to send up a trellis.
It’s definitely a good climber and decorative like a sweet potato vine would be. Although just standard heart shaped leaves. The flowers are night blooming and quite showy. Especially the white ones.
Ooh, that’s fun! Are the leaves edible, or is it only the pods?
I haven’t been able to track down any info on the edibility of the leaves and I haven’t seen any that use them unfortunately. I’ll probably have another go sometime at trying to figure that out.
My guess is that if nobody seems to eat the leaves but there are no warnings about them, the leaves are probably edible but unpalatable. If I had the plant in my garden, I’d probably give a leaf a nibble (and then spit it out and rinse out my mouth afterwards if I was worried) to see if the flavor warranted further research in finding out if the leaves are safe to eat. (I’d only do that with a species that was definitely edible in another part and had no warnings about the leaves, of course.)
I may be less cautious than most . . . 
You are almost certainly less cautious than I. 
(Laugh!)
I could see taking this approach if food was scarce. I did manage to find some mentions of lead stem and seed extracts for medicinal (antibacterial) use. There have been some pretty good looking studies showing antibiotic potential and safe use of tinctures and aqueous extract. I also saw leaf tea recommended for such use. So I’d assume palatability for eating would be low and that there’s probably some limit to safe quantity consumption of other parts besides the pods.
Good research! Leaf tea being recommended for medicinal use is a very strong indication that it’s not toxic in tiny quantities, and a pretty strong implication that it’s not great to eat in large quantities.
