Edible Vines for Partial to Full Shade?

Hi everybody,

I'm looking for an edible vine fit for partial to full shade in Los Angeles, California. Do you have any recommendations?

Apios has pretty flowers that are edible I think. and edible roots.

The flowers of pretty much all edible fruits are also edible.

Here in the northeast, I have the following vines growing: grapes, akebia, schisandra, maypop passionfruit, hardy kiwi, arctic kiwi, (I am thinking about trying a regular fuzzy kiwi but I cant find a female, that is hardy enough).

Arctic Kiwi and schisandra are suppose to be shade tolerant. I think that maypop passionfuit would be okay too due to the fact that you would have a longer growing season. I would look for short season/early bearing/dwarf cultivars and try out all the vines available for your climate.

Here are some of the climbers we grow here in Zone 7 (The same as you I think?).

Basella alba, Epinard de Malabar, Malabar spinach or Indian Spinach, Ceylon spinach grows fast and high, the leaves are edible raw or cooked.



Callebasse gourd, the flowers are beautiful, you can eat the young fruit and if you leave them to grow and ripen you can use them for containers, lampshades etc.





Christophine, chayote ou chayotte



Kiwai (Actinidia arguta), mini-kiwi or Siberian Kiwi (Resists to -20°c)

Mirlitons (Sechium edule, chouchou) are completely edible.  Around the world people eat the tender young vines and tendrils, the fruit, and the tubers. Young plants are grown as asparagus-like palnts.  Reunion Island in particular has a cuisine based on Chouchou.  See:
www.mirliton.org
Lance

Akebia, chocolate vine maybe?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akebia

edible and invasive! Your neighbors will thank you forever!

Hugo Morvan wrote:Akebia, chocolate vine maybe?

Yes! Akebi grows wild here (zone 7-8) all over. It grows deep in the woods, so very shade tolerant. Everyone knows their own secret spot in the woods to pick akebi, if the monkeys haven't gotten to them first.

Thank you everyone for your recommendation! I'm still learning Zone 10, so much appreciated. I'm leaning towards the chocolate vine, passionfruit, and maybe some kiwi at this point.