'Crispy Snack' Mouse Bean

Amphicarpaea bracteata

Origin: Michigan

Improvement status: Cultivar

Seeds per packet: ~10

BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED

Life cycle: Perennial

The mouse bean (Amphicarpa bracteata) is a truly amazing native perennial legume — a rare plant that produces two very different types of seeds in two very different ways — with a long history of cultural significance among many Indigenous peoples on this continent. The unassuming twining vines are commonly found along waterways and trail edges in damp woods across eastern North America, though much of their prime habitat has been destroyed by large dam projects, especially in the midwest. With their distinctive "leaves of three", many inexperienced people confuse them with poison ivy, but they are not poisonous. Indeed, they have nourished generations of Indigenous peoples across their range.

As mentioned above, mouse beans produce two different kinds of seed. There are the tiny bean-like seeds born a few at a time in small aerial pods from little pink pea-like flowers (these are the seeds we're offering), and then there are much larger seeds, born underground and singly in little round pods, similarly to peanuts. The flowers that produce the aerial pods (which resemble tiny snow pea pods) are open, while the flowers that produce the underground pods are closed. From a culinary perspective, it's the large underground seeds that are sought after. But as they develop underground, usually beneath a tangle of their own vines and often many other plants, it's not easy for humans to dig up a substantial amount of them without devastating a landscape — and that's why Indigenous people utilized an ingenious harvesting practice.

Though more commonly known as "hog peanuts" in English, it's much more accurate to call them "mouse beans," which is a translation of the Lakota word for the plant, "makatomnica." Until US colonialism profoundly disrupted their traditional lifeways (in the forms of land theft, forced assimilation, dam construction, pipeline construction, and worse), the Lakota and other Oceti Sakowin peoples, including the Dakota and Nakota, had a long tradition of finding caches of mouse beans harvested by rodents and taking a portion of them for consumption by the community — but only a portion, so as not to devastate the all-important rodents, who could then be relied upon the following season to once again harvest a bounty of tender and delicious beans.

This article, featuring our wonderful friend Linda Black Elk, tells the story of the mouse bean's cultural significance to Lakota people far better than we can. 

As for this "Crispy Snack" selection, from Ken Asmus of Oikos Tree Crops in southwest Michigan — who calls this crop as an "excellent nitrogen-fixing plant for the shade of other trees and shrubs" — we'll give an abbreviated version of Ken's account.

'Crispy Snack' is a selected variety of mouse bean known for its delicious tubers, robust growth, and high yields. This is considered a shade-loving forming of the plant, though it can grow in full sun as well. It is extremely productive and could be the beginning of a high-nitrogen perennial edible crop, and a rare plant source of protein that can be grown in the shade. Compared to others, 'Crispy Snack' is more productive with slightly larger underground seeds.

In the absence of the kinds of rodents who make readily available caches, Ken has devised other methods of growing and enjoying them. "I have resorted to growing them in raised beds designed to protect them from rodents and make it easier to find them in a poly-bag once established. I have also found that growing them on landscape fabric works well and will allow the plants to flourish despite low amounts of soil over the top of them. Once established, this plant grows prolifically in many locations from pure shade to pure sun... [and] it will spread given the right growing conditions, especially soil that has little vegetative cover. It is a very good secondary crop or nitrogen-fixing crop for tree crops and orchards... The plants need open areas with relatively infertile soil to thrive."

Ken's Oikos Tree Crops has long been the only commercial source for this mouse bean selection, and we were very worried it might no longer be available after his retirement, so we are so excited that he is again offering them in bulk and grateful that Ken is willing to have us offer them to you all in small packets.

If you come from a community with a strong cultural connection to this species, we would be more than happy to share these beans with you at no cost. Please don't hesitate to reach out.

GROWING TIPS: From Ken - "Lightly sand the seeds to help break down the seed to allow water to penetrate the seeds easily. Put in a lightly moist media for 30 days in a refrigerator which will help unify sprouting. Or do the sprouting method often done with hard to germinate annuals: put them in a moist paper towel changing every few days to prevent mold. As they sprout, pluck out the sprouted ones and plant barely covering the surface of the seeds. The seeds are slow to germinate in the wild and it is thought that both dormancy and a tough seed coat delays germination over the course of two years. You can avoid this by using the scarification methods between two sponge-sanding blocks or flat medium grit sandpaper to help speed the process along. Germination is quick like beans.

On increasing yields: No one knows why this happens but apparently there are certain species of bacteria that fix themselves to the plants which makes them grow clusters of the peanuts together in bunches. I would attempt a mix of nitrogen-fixing bacteria used for other beans, peas or other similar genus to recreate this clustering and higher yielding effect. They produce a significant amount of aerial beans per plant and this appears to not be a problem yield wise compared to the tuber-like underground beans. But the bacteria would likely increase that too. I use a 5 ft. trellis with one inch openings."