If it grows in the Andes mountains in South America, it can grow on the Oregon coast.

At least that is what Dennis Phillips is trying to prove.

“Most of the Andean crops are happy in Coos County,” Phillips said.

He is growing three varieties of South American plants in a community garden near Allegany in hopes of being able to market the crops in local stores and also the plants to fellow gardeners. His three test crops are mashua, oca and yacon. All three have edible tubers for agriculture, but they also can be planted in a yard or garden for aesthetic reasons alone.

The oca and yacon look to have taken root nicely.

“Actually, looking at how well this is doing, it could probably be a commercial plant,” he said of his oca, while standing in the hot sun looking over his experiment Thursday.

Phillips has been growing South American plants in his own garden in the Barview area for 15 years, but about two years ago he found a more suitable environment in the community garden by the river. This year he hasn’t had too much success in marketing the plants as crops, but plans to expand his experiment.

“I wanted to do it on a much larger scale,” he said.

Phillips has been gardening for one reason or another since childhood. He collected animals as a kid and wanted to create an environment that seemed more like home for them.

“My original gardening was to create habitat for tadpoles and turtles,” he said.

Later, he became a botanist and his focus turned to food-producing crops, such as the three crops he has growing in the communal garden.

Phillips also spent time teaching in South America and saw how these plants were used for food in their native parts of the world. While there, he noticed the climate at 11,000 feet in the Andes and sea level in Coos County is remarkably similar. Both places have cool and wet conditions. It was this similarity that gave him the idea to bring some of the food crops to the Bay Area.

Phillips seems something of a scholar-gardener, dressed in khakis, a long-sleeved shirt with pens and a notepad in his pocket. Observing the spacing and healthy look of his plants, he takes mental notes rather than written. He calls them “happy” if they seem to be growing well.

He feared that he planted the big, bushy, leafy yacon plants too closely together, but then noted they seem to be especially happy this summer.

 Yacon, Phillips said, produces a versatile fruit. It can be eaten raw like an apple or made into a syrup or powder for cooking.

He doesn’t quite understand why the yacon wasn’t taken to Europe from South America for cultivation and imagines some doomed ship must have carried the sweet, pear-shaped tuber.

“Yacon is as good a crop as potatoes or tomatoes, but never made it back to Europe,” Phillips said.

Studiously looking over his portion of the garden, his eyes shaded by the brim of a slouchy hat, Phillips also seems happy with his experiment. The final test will be this fall when it’s time to harvest. Each of the yacon plants should produce about 15 tubers each, ranging in size from 1 to 2 pounds.

In Phillips’ opinion it isn’t too late to introduce an old crop to a new place.

“These are just growing incredibly here,” he said.