Plant · P-281

New Zealand Spinach

Tetragonia tetragonioides

New Zealand spinach fills the exact gap true spinach leaves in a hot summer, staying productive through heat that would make ordinary spinach bolt and turn bitter. It sprawls as a low, spreading vine, so picking the tender young shoot tips every few days both harvests the crop and keeps it producing. Its seed germinates slowly and unevenly, so it does best started indoors and transplanted out once frost danger has passed rather than sown direct. The leaf carries meaningful oxalates and is traditionally cooked rather than eaten raw, the same caution as true spinach.