Suggestions for an indoor, low light plant that has some sort of use?

I’ve had good success with California Woodland Strawberry (Fragaria vesca var. Californica) in heavy shade outdoors and dappled light underneath overhangs in hanging planters. While you probably won’t get tons of fruit if they don’t have at least some light, mine started fruiting underneath the black walnut canopy where they were the predominant groundcover in their second year with zero direct sunlight. Due to their prolific runners these plants create awesome cascades of strawberry foliage and red internode stems, up to 8’ long when I last measured!

It's worth noting that indoor plants also scrub VOCs from the air which are present in most homes and urban areas.

An easy indoor edible plant is Madeira vine - Anredera cordifolia.
Coveted as a vegetable by people all over the world, called 'okuwakame' or land-seaweed in Japan.
It's tasty, has low light requirements and is considered a monstrous environmental weed, so best cultivated indoors in a contained environment.

V Kay wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:Last winter I overwintered purslane indoors.  It was in my shower for a month while I was on vacation.  Of course it did not bloom.  It is said to be edible but I have not tried it...

Anne, if you've not yet braved trying the purslane, please do! We use it in Verdolagas, and *love* it. It'll self-sow if you let it escape outdoors, too. And those Omega-3 EFAs are soooo good for you!

I am not sure if I remember what happened to the purslane though I think a rabbit ate it.  Something, a squirrel maybe, ate all my moss roses.   They were too high for a rabbit.

Gosh, SO many good suggestions! I might have to try some new houseplants. We are in Montana, with low winter light in east and west facing windows. I'm rather inconsistent with houseplant care, so they really need to be able to tolerate my abuse and extreme temperature fluctuations at times with the RMH in winter.

So...that said, I've had failed attempts at:
--sweet potato vine - the aphids just would NOT leave it alone, on two different winters (with a year between) that I tried
--ginger - couldn't grow it
--stevia - tried my first year to overwinter a nursery purchased plant and it died
--lemongrass - have successfully overwintered indoors one out of three winters I've tried, this last year it died
--rosemary - I can overwinter one out of three plants or so each winter indoors

Though I have a jasmine, ficus, arrowleaf, wandering jew, aloe, philodendrons, spider plants and others that are actually growing fairly well under my care. Carl's link to that post about yellow archangel (Lamiastrum galeobdolon) said that wandering jew is edible, though did not seem to state that very confidently.

Arthur Lee Jaboson - well-known for foraging and botanical books, especially in the Seattle area, has been talking and writing about an edible houseplants book for some time.

See his post here:  https://www.arthurleej.com/a-EdHouse2.html - which lists quite a few edible houseplants, separated by what succeeded for him or failed.
And more about the book here (scroll down below the plant pictures):  https://www.arthurleej.com/a-EdHouse.html

And from Seattle Times Pacific NW Magazine:  Northwest Gardening Greats: Arthur Lee Jacobson’s focus now is on edible houseplants

By 2009, Jacobson was well under way on a new project: He’s compiled 1,156 genera of edible houseplants, and he’s not done. “Up to 76.5 percent of all houseplants are edible, but that doesn’t mean they’re good to eat,” he says.

In that article is an image of poinsettia which Arthur Lee says is edible!

He has a great attitude about how similar to outdoor microclimates, each indoor climate is unique and some plants may or may not thrive there.

Micro tomatoes. Baker creek had a new one this year called micro tom, supposedly they do well in a pot inside and only get about a foot tall. i started some seeds this year so I guess I'll see how they do.

Casey Pfeifer wrote:I’ve had good success with California Woodland Strawberry (Fragaria vesca var. Californica) in heavy shade outdoors and dappled light underneath overhangs in hanging planters. While you probably won’t get tons of fruit if they don’t have at least some light, mine started fruiting underneath the black walnut canopy where they were the predominant groundcover in their second year with zero direct sunlight. Due to their prolific runners these plants create awesome cascades of strawberry foliage and red internode stems, up to 8’ long when I last measured!

Not sure of the veriety I have of 'Alpine' strawberries but I use them as edible groundcover in my planters and the planters I bring into the greenhouse for freeze protection they continue to flower and produce a few fruit in December/January.

Spotted this nifty chart showing different plants light and water needs. I do wish it had more edibles on there, though!

Indoor plants arranged by light and water requirements. You can right click on the image and open it in a new tab to view it bigger.

I do wonder about where citrus is on the chart. My husband spouted an orange tree from seed, and we don't get much light, and he doesn't water it often, and it hasn't died in the 9+ years he's had it. ....Though it's never bloomed, either....

I wonder how chickweed, violet and sweet cicely would do indoors? They all prefer low light and are both delicious and medicinal. Ferns do well indoors with low light too and some species have edible fiddleheads.