Posted on Thu, Jan. 24, 2002 It's the invasion of the killer potatoes BY CURTIS MORGAN cmorgan@herald.com

The air potato may sound like some sort of diet food, but it's actually an exotic vine fast eating up one of the largest remnants of native forest left in Kendall.

This Saturday, Miami-Dade County's Parks Department wants to enlist an army of volunteer ''spudbusters'' to thwart a major invasion at Kendall Indian Hammocks Park.

Without the effort, ''we could lose the entire hammock,'' county biologist Linda McDonald Demetropoulos said.

Although not as widespread or well known as exotics like melaleuca or Brazilian peppers, air potatoes rank among the most notorious pest plants because they are rampantly aggressive and supremely resilient, sort of the botanical equivalent of the nasties from the Alien movies. Kill one, and a dozen more seem to pop back up.

In the winter, the air potato, actually a yam native to Asia and Africa, doesn't look particularly menacing. Vines that once cloaked the hammock's live oaks, sabal palms and gumbo-limbos have largely died off, withered to a brittle brown -- but not before they dropped thousands of potatolike things called bulbils.

By spring, with the first drops of rain, those ticking ''spudbombs'' will explode in a new and thicker rage of choking growth. The park, Demetropoulos said, could be overgrown again in a matter of weeks.

In just a few minutes, Demetropoulos and cartographer Dallas Hazelton, who work for Miami-Dade's natural areas management division, collected handfuls of gnarled bulbils.

They ranged from the size of a small red bliss potato to an Idaho baking potato, but Demetropoulos said they're not considered edible and certainly don't look appetizing.

They're under virtually every bit of brush and debris, some already sprouting a tentacle of roots or even the first few heart-shaped leaves.

They have an almost uncanny ability to sprout, Demetropoulos said.

''It doesn't need light, water or anything,'' she said.

The best method to whip the air potato is to pick up the countless spuds before they explode, which is where the volunteers come in.

The work won't necessarily be difficult, but it promises to be dirty, requiring some rooting around on hands and knees.

The first step, the spud search, will probably take four weekends. Volunteers also will be asked to return in the wet season to pluck out any small vines that do take root. Completely controlling the air potato and at least 17 other exotics could take years, and for that reason, Demetropoulos is hoping to recruit people willing to ''adopt a plot,'' or basically take over the war on exotics on 50-square-meter parcels within the park.

The county spends more than $2.5 million on such work every year in its natural areas, but it's particularly critical in small, isolated parks like Indian Hammocks, which are particularly susceptible to invading plants. Once a tree island of a limestone rock ridge in the middle of the Everglades and home to Tequesta Indian hunting parties, decades of farming and suburban sprawl have whittled real wilderness down to scattered pockets.

''We have done very little restoration in this hammock. It really needs help,'' Demetropoulos said. ``There is a lot of potential for people to do some good here.''

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2002

Answers

never heard of the air-potato. Or is that potatoe?

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2002

Published Thursday, January 24, 2002

BE A SPUDBUSTER

Herald Link

The Miami-Dade County Parks Department is looking for help to clear exotic invaders, particularly the air potato, from Kendall Indian Hammocks Park, 11395 SW 79th St.

The effort begins from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, and will run the same hours Feb. 2, 9 and March 2. Volunteers are asked to work all four weekends and will be honored at an appreciation breakfast and awards ceremony April 13.

Volunteers should wear comfortable old clothes, closed shoes, a hat, sunscreen and mosquito repellent. Gloves and water will be provided. Advance reservations are preferred. For more information on this event or other workdays in Miami-Dade natural areas, call 305-257-0933.

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2002

I think it's what you eat when you're playing air guitar.

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2002