Sissoo Spinach

Description

Sissoo spinach, Alternanthera sissoo, or Brazilian spinach is the perfect edible perennial groundcover. Sissoo forms dense mats a foot thick and shades out the soil, making weed seed germination nearly impossible. The leaves are purely crunchy without any slimy texture. They taste like a light swiss chard, are much easier to grow and create continual relationships in the soil. Sissoo loves the shade or dappled sunlight. Perfect to grow beneath your fruit trees.

I originally got these cuttings from Braian over at the school garden by Willie Mae’s Scotchhouse where a Castro Red Guava produced three or four years ago and currently just popped back from the roots.

Sissoo prefers 50% shade and will grow deep green, tender leaves. If grown in a sunnier location, it will grow well but not as lush and tender. It likes to be pruned back for vigorous growth, making harvesting a must to keep the plant looking healthy. Planting a cluster rather than a single plant produces a dense ground cover, and pruning the plant often, adding the cuttings right around the parent plant, is beneficial. The cuttings can be shared with friends and neighbors.

The leaves may be eaten raw, sauteed, steamed, or boiled. This spinach does contain small amounts of oxalic acid, meaning if you eat large quantities, you should cook them. They do cook quickly, though.