ABSTRACT
The groundnut is native to North America, from southern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Great Plains to the east coast. The distribution ranges from New Brunswick west to Minnesota, and south to Florida and Texas. The groundnut has been described as the most famous edible wild plant in eastern North America. The plant is a twining (counterclockwise) or climbing, perennial, herbaceous vine, 1–3 m (3–10 feet), occasionally to 6 m (20 feet) long. The availability of groundnut tubers contributed to the survival of the Pilgrims through their first winter, but the first European to eat the tubers was probably the scientist Thomas Harriot who accompanied Sir Walter Raleigh to Virginia in 1585 and remarked “they are very good meate.” Groundnut has been cultivated locally for more than a century in southern Europe for its edible tubers and has established itself as a wild plant in some parts of Europe.
