Who has ever heard of the Air Potato Plant? I know that I had not prior to this morning! It seems that the Air Potato is one more invasive plant that we have to deal with here in Pinellas County! From Tarpon Springs and Safety Harbor all the way down to St Petersburg, this plant is everywhere!
This plant originates in West Africa where it is cultivated on farms and an addition to the diet. Here in Florida it is NOT cultivated, but grows wild and for some reason this variety is bitter and can even be poisonous. As if that were not enough, the Air Potato can quickly grow 60 to 70 feet in length and crawl up tall trees where it blocks out the sun and eventually kills the tree.
It is believed that this plant came to our state over a hundred years ago as an ornamental and someone must have thrown it out - where it promptly grew, thrived and started taking over (and killing) other plants. If you find this plant in your garden, please remove it. It is one more non-native plant that is threatening our native vegetation.
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