Another of the many new and unusual things coming up in the greenhouse: Malabar Spinach!
Basella alba ‘Rubra’ is the red-stemmed variant of this tropical vine, a plant of dual use: edible and ornamental. As the common name suggests it has qualities similar to spinach with thick succulent oval or heart shaped leaves and juicy stems that can be eaten raw in salads or cooked like its counterpart. Hailing from somewhere in tropical Asia (exact origin unknown as it’s been grown and distributed for so long), it thrives in the heat of summer when regular spinach bolts and then dies away, reaching up to 10 feet or more in length if allowed. If soils turn dry they’ll throw tiny little whitish pink flower spikes from between the leaves, producing black berries with staining dye qualities that hold the seeds.
Quite a few other odd edibles are reaching photographable size, so expect a few similar posts soon.

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