Seen August 2010

I saw this flower in the rocks next to the boardwalk on the Lake Superior side of Canal Park in front of the Inn on Lake Superior. It was on September 20, 2010.

I have this vine growing at Big Pine Lake between New York Mills and Perham.

I have this vine growing among some spirea in a shaded area of my yard.

Spotted near the Sibley house along the river in Mendota.

I found this growing on the shady northeast side of my house. I transplanted it to a few new places. It's a gentle little vine, and while the flowers and pods aren't showy, they're interesting when you look at them up close. It may be the only vining legume that grows well in shade.

This plant has taken over my garden. Bufrying a climbing rosebush. I pulled most of it out before I discovered what it was. Still plent left in varios spot through out garden will try to find a place for them where they won,toverwhelm other plants

This vine is coming up everywhere in my garden! I pull it up because it twines around my perennials but there is still plenty left. It's a pretty vine. Will it kill the bushes it covers in summer or can they coexist?

Christy, it coexists with the other plants in the wild and it seems to play nicely enough with its neighbors wherever I've encountered it. Having said that, your garden probably does not have the natural competition that keeps hog peanut in check in wild populations.

We have LOTS of hog peanut growing in various regions adjacent to our lawn. I'm not sure I like the way it is covering our black-raspberry bushes. I also noticed the comment above about roses. It's almost impossible to pull off, because it twines many times around the stems. Any hints?

This vine is growing everywhere in my yard! It has taken over many parts of my gardens. It was never a problem in years past. The first time I noticed it, was about 2 years ago. The problem is that I cannot pull it off of my perennial plants. It winds itself around them tightly. It also seems to grow so dense that it shades many of the plants, causing them to wither. I do not believe this is healthy for the other plants. I don't think it plays nice. I also noticed that it is growing in many, many places around here. I saw a lot of it at Murphy Hanrahan Park Preserve. I have also seen it and other people's gardens. I wish I could eradicate it. Every time I try to pull it up, it is hanging onto the plant so tightly, that it damages them. Is there anything that can be done, other than try to pull it up by its roots? It is almost impossible to get to the base of the plant. Will it ever go away? It seems to be getting worse every year.

this is the third year I've seen this hog peanut vine in my forest garden. It went hog wild this year. it wraps itself around everything then covers everything up. the plant on its own is nice, but it has destroyed all my ferns and hostas.

The plant likes part shade, protects itself from overheating in direct sunlight patches by folding the triple leaflets together (like hands) so they aren't flat to the sunlight.

I always thought of hog peanut as a pretty little ground vine but last year it was on crack or something--maybe from so much moisture in the spring? I saw it completely smother raspberry plants along a trail in Lebanon Hills Park for 30 ft. Also, many other plants, including 3 ft. aspens. As mentioned by others, impossible to untwine it from plants if you don't catch it fast. Keep an eye on it if you can.

I have to second the above post for near the Sibley House in Mendota. I go there all the time, but upon reading the above post, I began looking for the Hog Peanut. There are TONS growing down the southern branch path... leading up to and surrounding below the 110/55 bridge.

I have this growing in various parts of my yard and woods. After cursing if for years because it tends to take over", I've read it actually has some value. Like clover, it adds nitrogen to the soil benefiting other plants.

I have this peanut vine on my hill going down to the water. It is covering everything, choking out all the things I have planted, as well as the wild plants. I've been trying to pull it out, but I feel it's hopeless. And, because the hill is so steep, it's difficult to tackle.

This grows very well along our wooded driveway.

Came along with transplants from Orono property.

Even pulling out the sprouting plants in the spring is barely enough to deter this vile vine. It's gone haywire this year and smothered other plants, and when I try to remove the dense canopy covering the victims, the tight winding knots sometimes pull everything else out of the ground as well. And the vine itself is a bit sharp and can cut exposed skin.

We have this in the wilder areas of our yard (and shaded). I thought at first it might be a vine form of poison ivy (which we do also have). But it generally seems to form vines along the ground, and it seems much more ~dainty than poison ivy.

We found a few vines in the Oak Savannah.

It has destroyed my woodland garden. For the past six years I have risked deer tick exposures trying to eradicate it. Not only does it smother perennials, it has choked young white pines.

Note that the common name is now considered disparaging to Native Americans. I try to use "ground bean" and to convince others to do so. The common name "hog-peanut" for Amphicarpaea bracteata carries racial stigma. Sam Thayer in The Forager's Harvest: "It is a derogatory term, meant to be demeaning to the Native Americans for whom this legume was common fare. Long ago in the American South, peanuts were considered food fit only for blacks; adding "hog" to the epithet suggested that this superb lentil, relished by Native Americans within its range, was even more lowly than the peanut and not fit for human consumption. This is typical of the way that Native Americans were made to feel ashamed of their heritage during the process of forced acculturation. The name has lost its derogatory connotation, but it still sounds terrible."

They are on the slope to the lake mingling with the Poison Ivy

Maureen, Lakeville. Although a native plant, it grows wild in many places including unwanted. Climbing my Asian lilies, just cut it at the bottom of the plant and save frustration of trying to get it off. Joe, nothing sharp on this plant. Must have been something else. I have 1000's of pine seedlings on 30 acres, also tons of hog peanut. They do not chose to grow in the same area. Natives tend to coexist.

Saw a few areas of this plant next to a trail in a heavily-wooded nature reserve that begins across 82nd St.W.from Spring Peeper Meadow north of Cty Rd 41 and Hwy 5 in Chanhassen. We were going to look into planting some in a shady area of our property where grass doesn't grow well, but after reading some of these comments, we won't!

Grows in dense thickets along a couple of trails in a far western Duluth public forest, near Jay Cooke Park..

Found along Ikes Creek in the Bass Ponds.

Just discovered it along the front edge of our property line in a moderately wooded, moderately steep area that used to be thick with buckthorn. I had never heard of hog peanut and initially wondered if it was poison ivy. This led me to investigate plants that look similar to poison ivy and voila - I have hog peanut plants! I'm trying to let this area go native so, for now, will let it be as it sounds like it has some beneficial aspects. However, I will keep an eye on it. Thanks

This vine has exploded in the last two years in the forested areas of our lake property, smothering other wildflowers and many new trees we planted under the DNR program. It's even taking down milkweed in sunny wild areas. It is too prevalent now to control. Really heartbroken. I didn't notice it until it was too late. Also makes it hard to walk through the woods because it catches your feet and trips you! Ugh.

I enjoyed Terry's 2017 post drawing attention to the derogatory aspect of "hog potato". But let me point out that "keep hogs off the streets" codes were enacted fairly late in the 1800s for states along the upper Mississippi. If hogs were still 'cage free' in Minnesota, people would have plenty of experience with the hogs rooting up the tubers of hog potato (along with the bulbs and corms of many of the early spring wildflowers in the woods). Even today in parts of Iowa you can tell in spring where hogs had been allowed to forage 100 or 150 years ago by the complete lack of spring wildflowers in the forests.

this vine is all around our yard. I let it grow last year (summer 2019), only to find it climbed, tackled, and took down many of our other native species in our rain garden. Attempting control of the vines this year, but it's already proving very difficult. I don't ever recall seeing the flowers or seed pods last year, but will be on the look out for them this summer.

This has taken off on my open oak woodland restoration after clearing of buckthorn a couple years back. 1/3 acre especially overgrown particularly as of this year. Like others above, it covers the ground and is overtaking most forbes. I'm beginning to fear for my shrubs. Most comments above show frustrated failure. Anyone, had any luck with control? What did those who mentioned intent to keep an eye on it decide?

I have never seen this plant before and this year it is bountiful all throughout the property at the cabin. As a "leaves of three" plant, I was initially cautious - and have since discovered it to be the American hog peanut plant. It appears to have gone from 0 to 100 MPH just this year. It is everywhere...

Amphicarpaea bracteata is invasive throughout my property and will quickly overgrow more desirable plants (shades of kudzu!) unless I constantly weed.. Does it propagate with rhizomes as well as seed? The only way I have found to keep it under control in my flower beds is to constantly pull young plants as soon as I notice them. This is a never-ending process throughout the growing season. Full-strength herbicide does seem to kill it, however, it is impossible to use this method once surrounding plants have erupted as Ground Bean seems to sprout near the root bed of the desired plant. Once the vine grows up a plant, trace the stem down to the ground, then pull out the roots (best done when soil is moist as it is shallow-rooted). The part left on your desired plant should die back, but, remove any flower heads as well. It was incorrectly identified as "bindweed" by a Master Gardner so I was unable to find it in Calystegia descriptions. Thank you for your wonderful site.

Dorothy, aggressive native plants aren't typically considered "invasive", a label reserved for non-natives that displace natives in the wild. Regardless, we have experienced in our own gardens that virtually any native vine can grow like mad in cultivation, where the checks and balances that exist in natural settings don't come into play. We have eliminated nearly all native vines from our gardens as a result, since it is a lot of work to keep them in line. Whoever said native plant gardens were maintenance-free never had one!

I'm seeing this grow vigorously this year in several places along the Mississippi River Gorge lower trails in the Howe neighborhood. It is smothering natives like meadow rue, columbine, etc. and it is spreading. I fear that all efforts to plant/protect native wildflowers along the trails is for naught with this vine taking over. But, maybe it will smother the buckthorn?

Anne, keep in mind that columbine and meadow rue are more or less dormant now and not really at risk of being wiped out by this vine (which is also native). They've been co-habitating for a long, long time.

Agree with Dorothy 8/15/20 that this slim vine is best pulled as soon as you see it. It threatens to choke out the raspberry plants right as berries are ripening. Having said that, it does look lovely winding around the picket fence, until it "hits" the 6-ft Joe Pye weed and proceeds to take it down!

This is scattered all over the woods where I have walked in Crow Wing County near Cross Lake. Turns out it is a good nitrogen fixer.

This plant is extremely prevalent in the woods behind my house. Unlike some of the other comments, I haven't found it to outcompete other plants at all. It densely covers bare ground very quickly, but it hasn't choked out anything from what I've seen. It doesn't twine around other plants' stems tightly enough to harm them, and the leaves are small enough that they don't block out too much light. It definitely seems to play nice when it's surrounded by plants it's naturally meant to coexist with. I've planted some in a shade garden beneath a tree, and it doesn't bother my ornamental plants much either. Perhaps the aggressiveness depends on the resources available to the plant or the conditions in which it grows. I certainly have no problem with it.

It is a larval host for Epargyreus clarus (Silver-Spotted Skipper), Autochton cellus (Gold-Banded Skipper),Urbanus proteus (the Long Tailed Skipper) , Strymon melinus (the Gray Hairstreak) and Thorybes pylades (the Northern Cloudywing) butterflies. Not so bad!

I finally found the name for this invasive weed on your site. I have hosta gardens adjacent to the woods and this year this nasty weed is taking over my part shade flower beds and hides under Plants like hostas and day lilies choking them out. Besides pulling them I do not know how to get rid of this nasty plant.

We live right across the river from the Great Bluffs State Park. I have had Am. Hog Peanut in our garden for several years. It seemed more aggressive this year. I appreciate the comment from Chris Wren and adjusted my "control" to now, as I am assuming the larval stages of listed butterflies are over.

Lisa, Hostas are the ones not native to MN, not this amphicarpaea.

It grows only under the bur oak canopy in my yard and only next to the phlox. It seems specific/specialized in where it grows.