A nitrogen-fixing vine and other wildlings
It’s been very dry at the food forest lately, after over a week of very cool breezes (24 degrees Celsius outside!). I came back from a family trip to very crunchy leaves around the forest. Yesterday though, it rained. Everything livened up a bit, and it was delightful to walk around the forest and spot refreshed wildlings everywhere.
Here’s a Curry Leaf (Murraya koenigii) wildling alongside very healthy and wild Sissoo Spinach (Alternanthera sissoo).
I also took some time taking out a wild vine that was starting to smother a Katuk (Sauropus androgynus) seedling. I often just cut the vine far enough from the plant, but since I didn’t have scissors or pruners, I pulled on it and accidentally took it out with its roots.
I’ve learned long ago that this wild vine is a nitrogen-fixer, so I was delighted but not surprised to see these root nodules. These nodules are where the nitrogen-fixing bacteria live. Nitrogen-fixing plants enrich the soil by taking nitrogen from the atmosphere (which is not usable by plants in that form) and then “fixing” the nitrogen through their symbiotic relationship with the bacteria who live in these nodules. The nitrogen then gets used by the plant and surrounding greenery, and eventually ends up in the soil.
I do remember identifying this vine before (that is how I confirmed the vine is nitrogen-fixing), but not recalling a name for it, I decided to identify it yet again. It was a good time to do so as well, since it was flowering.
The leaves.
The flowers.
The app I use identified it as Tropical Kudzu (Neustanthus phaseoloides), and checking philippineplants.org, I learned that it is native to the Philippines. When I hear Kudzu though, my mind immediately goes to this image I saw from a documentary (I’ve forgotten which one) wherein Kudzu vines have taken over a patch of land with its aggressive growth. I think the Kudzu we have in our food forest is different from that one though, plus the vine I identified is native, so I just mindfully untwine them from young plants whenever I see them.
I have made it a point to plant native trees in the food forest, but I love discovering wild plants — what other people may call “weeds” — and finding out that they’re native. It excites me to know that they are still thriving in the food forest, that there’s space for them, whether they’ve always been on this piece of land, or if a bird or another creature brought them here, or if their seed found their way here and the soil is welcoming enough for them to germinate and grow.