What it is
Malabar Spinach (Basella alba) is in the Basellaceae family. Not a true spinach, but it gives you a tender green all through the brutal heat when real spinach won't grow.
How to grow it
It wants full sun to part shade, water it moderate, and give it rich, moist soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0–7.0. Space plants about 12 in apart. Expect roughly 55–70. Warm-season; thrives in heat.
How it's used
Malabar Spinach is used: sautéed, soups, raw young.
🔎 How to identify it
- Thick glossy heart-shaped leaves
- Often red-stemmed climbing vine
- Small fleshy berries (staining)
Edibility
How to grow & propagate malabar spinach
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate malabar spinach
Malabar spinach grows from seed (soak it first — the coat is hard) or roots easily from a stem cutting set in water. It's a heat-loving vine, so it shines in the dead of a Texas summer when regular spinach has long since bolted.
Growing malabar spinach in Texas
Give it full sun to part shade and rich, moist soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
This one thrives in heat that flattens other plants, so it earns its space through a Texas summer. Get it established before the worst of July, keep water steady, and it'll produce when little else will.
Keep moisture even, especially while it's young — deep, less-frequent soaks build better roots than a daily sprinkle.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly 55–70 before you're harvesting. Harvest at peak and keep harvesting — most vegetables produce harder the more you pick, and one left to over-mature tells the plant its job is done. The part you're after: leaves and stems.
Making more for free
Save it the easy way — vegetatively. Because you can clone this plant from a cutting, division, or piece of root, you never have to buy it again: keep one healthy mother plant and make all the copies you want.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.