Succeeds in most soils in sun or semi-shade. A very free growing plant, it can be used to clamber over large trees, shrubs or tree stumps. Hardy to about -20°c. Dioecious. Male and female plants must be grown if seed is required.

Root - cooked. Rich in starch. The root can be dried and ground into a powder that is used in making cakes, puddings, sweet drinks etc, it can also be made into a jelly or eaten in soups. A beer resembling root beer or sarsaparilla is made from the roots. Young shoots - raw or cooked. They can be added to salads or cooked like asparagus.

Seed - sow March in a warm greenhouse. This note probably refers to the tropical members of the genus, seeds of plants from cooler areas seem to require a period of cold stratification, some species taking 2 or more years to germinate. We sow the seed of temperate species in a cold frame as soon as we receive it, and would sow the seed as soon as it is ripe if we could obtain it then. When the seedlings eventually germinate, prick them out into individual pots when they are large enough to handle and grow them on in the greenhouse for at least their first year, though we normally grow them on in pots for 2 years. Plant them out into their permanent positions in early summer. Division in early spring as new growth begins. Larger divisions can be planted out direct into their permanent positions. We have found it best to pot up the smaller divisions and grow them on in a lightly shaded position in a cold frame, planting them out once they are well established in the summer. Cuttings of half-ripe shoots, July in a frame.

Moist to dryish thickets and woods. Considered to be an obnoxious pest in America.