Miscellaneous families

Basellaceae
Ceylon Spinach - (Basella rubra and/or alba) is also known as Malabar spinach. It is a climbing tender perennial. There are two types - a red stem and a white stem. The plant is native of the East Indies. The red is slightly more productive than the white in the Virgin Islands. Neither seems to be bothered by any pests. It can be trained on a trellis or planted on the flat and allowed to sprawl.

The succulent young and mature leaves and stems are eaten - usually mixed with other vegetables in a soup or stew. The white species retains its color, but the red loses much of its color in the
water and is not as attractive. The flavor is very mild and almost tasteless.

Convolvulaceae
Water Spinach - (Ipomoea aquatica): is a semi-aquatic tender perennial that roots very easily at stem nodes. The flowers are usually white and stems are hollow (to help distinguish it from a sweet potato harvested for its stem tips). Planting can be direct seeding or from pieces of the stem.

Water spinach can be eaten raw or cooked, stir-fry with beef, chicken, pork, or sea foods. It has a milky white sap on the cut part of the stem.

Tillaceae
Okra Leaf - (Corchorus olitorius): is also called bush okra, Jew's mallow, or jute mallow and is a popular fiber crop in West Africa, Malaysia, Egypt, Philippines, and Central America. Plants with small yellow flowers borne in the leaf axils can grow to more than 5' tall. The optimum planting distance was found to be 50 cm. x 20 cm. It is an upright, slightly woody herb with serrated leaves.

The edible shoot tips are cooked in stews and have a mucilaginous consistency similar to okra. In West Africa the leaves and tips are stored dry, and in India the shoots are cooked with rice.