Plant · P-487

Hops

Humulus lupulus

Hops is a vine whose crown survives winter while the top dies back to nothing, then climbs a trellis to full height again by midsummer. The papery female cones flavor and preserve beer, and the young spring shoots are eaten much like asparagus. Grown well south of the 35th parallel it stays a healthy, fast-growing vine, but the days never get long enough to build a full cone crop, so here it earns its keep as shade, medicine and spring shoots rather than a brewery-scale harvest.