Potato bean (Apios americana), also known as Indian potato, wild bean, openauk, and hopniss, is a beautiful, vining legume native to the eastern half of the United Statues and Canada. Both the tubers (”potato”) and seeds (”beans”) of this perennial member of the pea family (Fabaceae) are edible and packed with protein; the plant was an essential food source for Native Americans and early white settlers and is a backcountry survivalist’s best friend. Someday, it may also play a key role in providing a sustainable food source to people around the world. As with its close relative and fellow native legume, American hog peanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata), potato bean is a nitrogen fixer, which means it grows quite well without fertilizer and enriches the soil for other plants growing around it. For me, however, potato bean is simply one of the loveliest finds of late summer in Appalachia - its clusters of five-parted, reddish-purple flowers and green-brown, twining stems signal that summer will soon come to an end. The photos above were taken on the Mon River Trail.