Sown here rather than found here, which settles the naming: these came up where winged bean seed went in.

A climbing legume grown as much for the pod as for the plant. The pod is the part everyone knows – flat, about three or four inches long, with four frilled wings running its length and smooth round seeds inside. Picked young they are blanched and eaten with nam phrik, or dropped into a curry. The young leaves go into salad, ripe seeds are roasted, and the tubers are cooked much as cassava or sweet potato would be. Very little of the plant is not food.

The flowers are pale, white washed with purple, and easy to miss against the leaves.

At this stage each seedling is three broad triangular leaflets on a short stem. They will want something to climb before they want anything else.