Antigonon leptopus (Polygonaceae)
With all the autumn rain, this climber has taken off and has scrambled over everything in its path. I don't have the heart to cut it back right now as the flowers are a magnet for bees. The flowers grow out from the tendrils at the end of long trailing stems and are the most vivid shade of hot pink. Being in the buckwheat family, the seeds are said to be edible if you fancy going through a long collection and winnowing process. The tuberous roots are also claimed to be edible. This root system allows for cutting back the entire plant to ground level during winter, which I do knowing it will re-shoot as soon as the warm weather returns. Treating it as a summer annual climber seems to be the way to go but I am just hoping nothing has been smothered under all that lush growth.
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