Basella alba

Malabar spinach is the spinach of the heat: a vine with thick, glossy, juicy leaves that grows strongest just when ordinary spinach gives up. It gives a first harvest 70 days after sowing and, once established, can be picked every week. Pests and diseases barely touch it, and its red-stemmed forms are so pretty they're grown as ornamentals. A generous, easy, perennial vegetable for any tropical garden.

A plant of the humid tropics that grows up to 1,500 meters, tolerates heavy rain and adapts to almost any soil, though it yields far more in moist, well-drained soil rich in organic matter. It prefers a warm, sunny spot, but in light shade it gives bigger, more succulent leaves. It's a vigorous climber, with stems several meters long, that needs a fence, trellis or stake. Picking the 7–13 cm tips every week keeps it in bounds and makes it branch more. Planting distance: 20 cm to 1 m.

The leaves and tender tips are eaten raw in salads or cooked like spinach, with a mild flavor. Don't overcook them, or they turn slimy; that same texture makes them ideal for thickening soups and stews, like okra. They're a good source of vitamins A and C, iron and calcium. The purple juice of its fruits is a natural food coloring for baking.

Traditionally the cooked leaves and stems are eaten as a mild laxative, and a leaf paste is applied to boils and sores. The cooked root is used for diarrhea.

A placenta species that climbs to the high stratum on living fences and support trees. It gives continuous food from the first months while the trees grow, and uses vertical space other vegetables leave empty.