4 Tasty Tropical Highland Plants | Plants of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea has a delightfully diverse range of food plants. Today we'll look at four of them, both familiar and unfamiliar, wild and domesticated, introduced and native.
Plants in this video:
Rungia (Rungia klossii)
Other Names: Mushroom Plant, Shombay, Moku, Tani, Kenkaba
Water Dropwort (Oenanthe javanica)
Other Names: Getuya, Japanese Parsley, Water Celery, Minari, Seri, Labu Siam
Chayote (Sechium edule)
Other Names: Mirliton, Choko, Sako
Watery Rose Apple (Syzygium aqueum)
Other Names: Laulau, Water Apple, Bell Fruit (some of these names could also refer to other related fruits)
Credits:
Host: Sam
Camera: Sam
Sound: Sam
Editing: Sam
Title Camera: Julia Goertzen and Sam
Title Graphic: Julia Goertzen
Music: 'The Cascades,' by Scott Joplin, played by Sam
Thumbnail: Julia Goertzen and Sam
Photos:
Chayote Root: Downtowngal, CC0 PD
Chayote Root (without ruler): Nicholas Hellmuth, www.maya-ethnobotany.org
Kokisa Fruit: Prota4U Syzygium guineense
Malay Apple: Forest & Kim Starr, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
Rungia Flowers: Tony Rodd, CC BY-NC-SA
Getuya Flower: Hyun-tae Kim, CC BY 4.0
Seven Japanese Herbs: kansai-odyssey.com
Others: Sam
Special thanks to Kelly Inae, Papa James Yagai, Holley Namely, and the Goroka Natural Habitat for making this all possible.

[@FruitHunters]

Did you try many different screw pine varieties?

[@AmblingwithSam]

I've tried a few so far. 5 species as far as I can think: karuka, wild karuka, marita, pandanus tectorius, and pandan (the kind with leaves used for flavor/colour), and a few varieties each for the karuka and marita. Pandanus trees kind of fascinate me, but unfortunately living in Canada, I don't have many opportunities to try new ones, haha.

[@DulcieLupton]

Childhood favourite the Laulau! Along with Okari and Galip nuts.

[@AmblingwithSam]

Nice! I did get to try galip nuts while I was there, and those were some of the tastiest nuts I've ever tried.

[@noreenm9397]

Great video! 👍

[@AmblingwithSam]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@WibblyWobbly]

Thanks, thats the first truthful description of rungia taste on youtube.

[@AmblingwithSam]

So I'm not alone! I was confused by all the places I read that said it tasted like mushrooms.

[@WibblyWobbly]

@@AmblingwithSam ill be able to say for sure in a couple of weeks:)) but im sure its not as mushroomy as people say. Stay tuned for my verdict:)

[@sjgoertzen8478]

Interesting and informative!

[@Create-mt2rf]

learned so much from you. I documented some of the plants in my village in Madang and have walked past some plants that you have shown without knowing they were edible 😅.

[@AmblingwithSam]

Nice, glad to help! I always love making those discoveries, realizing a familiar plant was actually edible.

[@FruitHunters]

Love this content Sam🤙🏽🙌🏽

[@jameskrauska8665]

i love your content, great stuff

[@ginaturnbull4372]

You're a great teacher, Sam!

[@AmblingwithSam]

Hey thanks Gina!

[@kristy-maxineakiro4938]

Rungia (or amba in my local dialect) is actually only eaten by the people of the highlands of PNG. Coastal people don't eat it, nor do they don't grow it.

[@Youdontknowmeson1324]

There is hardy relative to chayote but it so rare but it is extremely cold hardy. Trichosanthes it is related to ivy gourds to and in the same genus but there is bigger hardier version but it is reported to be quite bitter. Forgot the species but Eric tonsminer grows them as a perenial in masschusetts.

[@AmblingwithSam]

Interesting! On a quick look-up, it might be a hardy variety of Trichosanthes cucumerina he's growing? Might have to check that one out. It looks to be a tropical/subtropical species, but has a few hardier varieties.

[@Youdontknowmeson1324]

@@AmblingwithSam triosanthes genus now I remember he grew it outside and it survived but he got rid of it because of its bitter flavor.

[@mbirdie77]

Thanks, finally learnt the english names of both laulaus. They were quite common in Port Moresby around the 80s but you no longer find them nowadays, probably climate change 🤔