For Kate, who has an affinity for all things purple, pictures of the hyacinth beans. There's a pair of them currently growing like mad up the topiary forms on either side of the picture window of the garden building. (Boy, that was a long sentence!) Even the veins in the leaves are purple!
The pods are actually edible, but no one has the heart to eat them because they're so pretty! Plus they're a little dangerous, as most beautiful things generally are. They would be fine if eaten fresh, but the dried beans have high levels of cyanogenic glycosides and would need to be boiled before they'd be safe to snarf. Did you know that most members of the rose family, including peaches, almonds, raspberries, apples and plums, also have some level of cyanogenic glycosides in either their fruit or leaves? Yep!
Well... that was a cheery thought, right? *snort* Anyway - they're pretty and they're purple and make lovely climbing vines.
Oh and lest you think I was kidding yesterday... This tangled snarl is my tomatillo patch!
The pods are actually edible, but no one has the heart to eat them because they're so pretty! Plus they're a little dangerous, as most beautiful things generally are. They would be fine if eaten fresh, but the dried beans have high levels of cyanogenic glycosides and would need to be boiled before they'd be safe to snarf. Did you know that most members of the rose family, including peaches, almonds, raspberries, apples and plums, also have some level of cyanogenic glycosides in either their fruit or leaves? Yep!
Well... that was a cheery thought, right? *snort* Anyway - they're pretty and they're purple and make lovely climbing vines.
Oh and lest you think I was kidding yesterday... This tangled snarl is my tomatillo patch!
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