Adding to the list of perennial vegetables: ASPARAGUS RHUBARB (though the rhubarb leaves are toxic) stems are delicious  cooked with sugar to make compote - to go with roasted meat dishes, - or served with cream as desert, - or on bisquits as rhubarb shortcake, - or over pancakes, or pound cake, or other cakes,  or prepared w/strawberries for pie fillings. My parents grew rhubarb in heavy, moist soil in shade. Their rhubarb grew huge. Slender, red stems were considered superior; thick stems were avoided (being too watery). Green-stemmed rhubarb was considered inferior and was never grown. To prep rhubarb: cut off leaves and discard. Wash, dry, & cut stems into 1-inch slices across. Don't peel.

One person's exotic crop, is another person's....potatoes! Potatoes are my exotic crop. Hey, don't laugh! I grew up with chayote squash but unable to grow potatoes (they do not grow well in the tropics). I did not realize until recently that: -potatoes will not form tubers in the heat. -potatoes need a low pH. How low? I have seen different figures. I guess I should start a thread on common (non exotic) crops. OK, so I managed to grow enough of them for one meal. This is terrible, because they were the best potatoes I ever tasted, and now I want more. I am trying again. I got enough potatoes (little bitty ones) that I can use them as seed. I will manage to grow potatoes some day. Some say it is easy. I started chayote squash in zone 10, now I will start again in zone 9. I even have a place for them. Very easy to start, get some at grocery stores that do not treat their produce. I got mine at a Mexican food store. It started growing sprouts all by itself, sure looks like an alien type of veggie. Very interesting indeed. I like it in creole dishes, if I call it mirliton then it really sounds exotic even to me! Some more: Methi greens (just use the fenugreek seeds from Indian stores). Aloo methi, yum yum.... Gai lan. I love it but it did not do too well for me. Should I try again? Pak choi. This does great and I will continue to grow them. I would like bananas so I need to take a cutting and transplant or something. I would prefer the plantain type of bananas. Some day I will manage to grow an avocado tree and get avocados. I am growing artichokes but this is not exotic to me, maybe to you? Corn! now that is exotic, not only in Europe but also in Los Angeles. Amaranth could be considered exotic? I grew it and now I have heaps of amaranth volunteers. I wanted it to reseed, but not that much!

Happyday, those are indeed large tubers, but I have read that they can get much larger. This is a lightly cultivated strain, and the documentation said "basketball size" tubers were possible. I'll have to see that to believe it. As for the pods, I don't know. Mine have never pollinated, and once I managed to trigger the complex flower to pollinate itself but the pod died of heat exposure or something before it grew very much. I believe there is some sort of swamp fly that is the main pollinator but no one knows for sure. And yes, they like lots of water. I just made sure to water mine enough that the top soil looked moist whenever possible. They can't be overwatered like some garden plants, and they can also tolerate dry conditions for a bit. The conditions that I think are likely to be best are moist, sandy loam type of environments with plenty of sun. But they do seem to be tolerant of adverse conditions.

I'd hesitate to use ivy since due to its evergreen leaves, bugs may want to overwinter in it. And as Mindy says, hydrangea vine is way too huge for this (can get to 40 feet!) Apios americana AKA Indian potato or groundnut will grow in full shade to full sun and is a native perennial. It will spread, either by tubers (though these are edible, so you can dig and eat if too many) or by seed (so deadhead after bloom.) Really unusual flowers. If you are close to me (central NH) I can give you some tubers, but you can also get it from Brushwood nursery (http://www.gardenvines.com/) which is a very reliable company in my experience, and the best value for money combination. There are a bunch of clematis that will grow in part shade. In the search below, if you put in shade under the aspect drop-down menu you will get a huge list. If it doesn't have a + (indicates a photo) then it probably isn't commonly available so you can ignore it. If it has a + you can click on the name to see photos and info about the plants. (Check that the group isn't Integrifolia as those don't climb.) Type 3, hard pruning, are easiest to grow in general. Brushwood Nursery has a search box and you can type in the names to see if they have them. Some of the ones you may be most likely to find have another name beside them that starts EVIPO followed by a number like 034, but there are others that will be available commonly such as Bees Jubilee, Betty Corning, Ernest Markham, Hagley Hybrid, John, Paul II, Perle d'Azur, Tie Dye, Ville de Lyon. Of these I have Ville de Lyon in half shade and it blooms and grows well. Venosa Violaceae also grew and bloomed well in more than half shade for me (until the voles ate it, curse them!) You can also just ask on the clematis forum for those that grow well in shade for the more northern folks. Here is a link that might be useful: clematis on the web search