Plant · P-316

Egyptian Spinach

Corchorus olitorius

Egyptian spinach, also called molokhia, is a fast-growing summer annual grown for its leaves rather than in spite of the heat - a hundred-degree August is its actual growing season, not something it merely survives. Young leaves go raw into salads while older ones are cooked down into the thick, mucilaginous soup that gives the plant its name across African and Middle Eastern kitchens. Its stems also yield a jute-like fiber for cordage and sacking, a second harvest most gardeners never realize is there. Only the leaves are eaten - the seeds are purgative, so they are left for propagation rather than the pot.