I planted kang kong this spring, also known as water spinach. (Ipomoea aquatica.) It’s an edible morning glory that is an aquatic plant in tropical humid climates. I figured it would probably not be very happy in my hot, dry summers. Especially since I stuck it in full sun.
Instead, it’s done awesome! It’s grown all over the place and produced lots of tasty leaves. (They have very little flavor when raw, but that flavor is pleasant, and the crisp texture is very nice. When cooked, they have a spinach flavor without any geosmin aftertaste, which makes them delicious.)
Propagating them is super easy. You rip off a piece of the vine, stick it in water, and within two or three days, there will be roots all over it. You can tell it’s an aquatic plant that loves wet feet! Since I started mine from a seed, they’re probably also easy to start from seed. And it probably wouldn’t be hard to keep them as a houseplant, because they don’t even seem to need soil – they seem perfectly happy to grow vigorously in a vase with some water.
Plus they seem pretty drought tolerant. I forgot to water mine for two weeks (with no rain and 95+ degree temperatures), and it was still fine.
I figured kang kong would do terribly in my climate, but it seemed worth a try, so I could at least sample the flavor. Instead, I’m really impressed!
We all know what it’s like to try a plant we thought would do well in our climate, that then wound up failing. So let’s celebrate the reverse – our surprising successes!
What species have you found do great in your climate, even though you thought they’d be a failure for sure?
I grew some Potentilla crantzii from seed though I didn’t expect it to be that successful in my soil which is dense compared to growing on free draining rocks (in their native climate) but it turns out thrive in my conditions.
It’s probably a good thing that you have a dry climate. Ipomoea aquatica could be super invasive in some places, like Florida for example. We’ve been growing it here in Illinois zone 6a and wow it grows fast. Beautiful flowers. But I’m glad it can’t survive cold winters because i could see it taking over when nobody’s watching
Ha ha ha, yes, I know what you mean! I’ve heard it’s an invasive species in tropical wet climates, and I’m not at all worried about that because I’m in a temperate dry climate.
Nevertheless, I honestly wouldn’t be broken up about it if it did escape into the wild and start growing in rivers everywhere near me. It’s beautiful, it has no thorns or poisonous parts, and it’s productive tasty food. I have a hard time seeing that as a very big problem. I’d just teach everyone in my neighborhood to go forage it.
There are some things with invasiveness potential that I absolutely won’t grow here – anything drought tolerant that has thorns, for example – but I’m not particularly fussed about tropical invasives. I doubt they’ll spread beyond my greenhouse.
Artemisia annua , a medicinal herb seems to do quite well in my greenhouse and even outside it starts to make a present. But i could have just fell into a variety which is not far off to being adapted to my climate. I take seeds wherever i can, so again i’ve formed a grex or hybrid swarm of the stuff.
I am very familiar with things not working out, even the Kang Kong you mentioned i tried in my pond , it flowered but no seeds, and died over winter. I would try again though. Because it’s super healthy and quite neutral can be added to anything.
Great find!
Mine’s flowering right now! I haven’t seen it set seeds yet, but it only just started flowering, so it may be awhile before I can be sure if it will. I only have one plant, so it’s possible it’s not self-fertile and I’ll need to plant more for cross-pollination. (Since I wouldn’t mind having more genotypes, and I have more seeds I can plant, I’ll probably do that eventually.)
