Malabar spinach
Basella alba
A tropical vine green with mucilaginous leaves. Not spinach. Loves heat that makes real spinach bolt.
GROW → HARVEST → EAT → DRY → POWDER → CAPSULE → GUMMY — forms are not equivalent. Food first.
Identity
Also called: Basella
What it is
A tropical vine green with mucilaginous leaves. Not spinach. Loves heat that makes real spinach bolt.
Edible portions
- leaves
- stems
Absence of a portion from this list means it is not treated as food here — not that every other part is toxic.
Growing
- Climate. 10–12 vine; annual summer elsewhere
- Light. Full sun, heat, moisture
- Soil. Rich, moist
- Planting. Trellis. Seed or cuttings.
- Harvest. Leaves all summer.
Preparation and culinary uses
- Soups and stir-fries; mucilage thickens
Nutrition and compounds
- Vitamins (qualitative, well-known associations). vitamin A, vitamin C — not milligram values.
AAA interpretation Food first. These associations explain why a plant shows up in a nutrient conversation — they are not a supplement shopping list.
Next steps
Sources
- USDA PLANTS Database — taxonomy and range (verify current entries)
- USDA FoodData Central — nutrient profiles for foods (verify current entries; this page does not invent milligrams)
- State cooperative extension growing guides — verify for your region
Honest incompleteness is preferred to fabricated completeness. If a section is missing, no record for it is attached here — not a claim that the plant lacks that characteristic, and not that it was omitted as a secret.
Internal quality class A. Strong page: distinctive plant facts plus practical growing or kitchen use.