John Savage wrote:

Anyone heard of a climbing potato?

Has anyone else had any success chasing this down?
Nothing on ABC radio sites.

There is a major environmental pest Madeira Vine (Andredera cordifolia)
that is also called potato vine that Les Robinson's Field Guide to the
Native Plants of Sydney, says is native to South America and that the
aerial tubers are eaten in Mexico and Southern Europe. Having pulled
tons of it out of Sydney bushland, I can tell you it doesn't produce
much edible matter.

http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au...chapter10.html
talks about a Climbing Potato Fern in Hawaii

Seems to be something in web pages in ZA (South Africa), but I can not
always load them. This would kill the Australian Native side.

http://www.botany.unp.ac.za/rcpgd/eb...l_medicine.htm mentions #
Bowiea volubilis (English: climbing potato, Zulu: igibisila, gifisila).

http://www.gardeningeden.co.za/altmedical.html also mentions Bowiea
volubilis. So it definitely isn't a native.

This gives some cultivation info on Bowiea volubilis (also called sea
-onion somewhere else)
http://florawww.eeb.uconn.edu/acc_num/198501019.html

http://www.merriments.co.uk/plantlist_l_z.htm talks about Crispum
glasnevin (hint species is lower case) Climbing potato

And this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plant...ages/860.shtml
indentifies it as a Cilean Potato Tree.


So, I've come to the conclusion that it might all be a furphy at best
and Madeira vine at worst.