The leaves of the Brazilian spinach can be steamed, boiled or eaten raw as a salad.
OF late, I have come across some things that I feel would be good to share with you and perhaps, some of you might have encountered them already.
They are the Brazilian spinach, the trumpet vine, and the yellow jasmine shrubs.
1. The Brazilian Spinach
⦁ Scientifically named ‘Alternanthera sissoo’, this tropical edible groundcover also has other common names such as the ‘Sabu’ or ‘Sissoo’ spinach. Distinguished by its vigorous ground-spreading coverage, crinkly leaves and rooting nodes, it reaches up to one foot (0.3m) in height and is very easy to grow. It prefers a shady area, can adapt to a wide range of pH soil conditions and also it can tolerate drought. The small, white flowers are deemed insignificant.
⦁ The Brazilian spinach does not bear seeds – cultivation can be done using plant cuttings and growth is generally guaranteed as long as there is a good amount of nitrogen, organic matter and water. The cuttings can be implanted in soil or potting mix about two inches down. Normally, this plant is used as groundcover for the fruit trees. The plant is suited in most conditions, but not too well in waterlogged ground.
⦁ The leaves of Brazilian spinach are crunchy like the temperate-climate leafy vegetables, but some cultivars have that slightly bitter taste. Steaming and boiling are the highly recommended methods of cooking for a large batch, just like you would cook the local ‘cangkuk manis’ (manichai). It can be cooked as a soup dish or fried with eggs. It can also be consumed raw, like a salad with tomatoes and onions, topped with a simple oil-vinegar dressing. Personally, I had grown it and eaten it several times, but I stopped after having found out that it contained oxalate – a compound that too much, could cause kidney stones in some people. Other nutritional values include calcium, manganese, folate, magnesium, iron, copper, vitamins B2, B6, C and E. It is also low in fats and calories.
2. The Trumpet Vine
⦁ Campsis radicans, or the trumpet creeper, is a fast-growing perennial vine. It is a vigorous and invasive flowering creeper that attracts hummingbirds. Native to eastern North America but can also be found in the southern parts of Texas and Dakota, it has beautiful, tubular flowers with colours ranging from yellow, orange to red. Four cultivars are popular for landscaping: the ‘Yellow Trumpet’, the ‘Madame Gale’, the ‘Indian Summer Trumpet’ and the ChineseTrumpet’ (Campsis grandiflora). A self-climbing woody climber, the plant produces seeds in pods. New shoots can pop up yards away from the mother plant, and form thickets that can choke out other plants. It scrambles over everything on their paths by aerial rootlet. This creeper is useful for erosion control. The dark green leaves grow up to 15 inches long, into elliptic or oblong leaflets. Some gardeners like to grow this climbing vine onto trellises, walls, fences, pergolas and arbores.
⦁ Cultivation: It is typically reproduced by cuttings, and it is able to develop new roots and new suckers readily. Seeds may take up to two months to germinate in the sand. It thrives on acidic and neutral soil, and in well-drained media such as chalk, clay, loam or even sand. Water requirement is low, even in dry environment. The vines need thinning and pruning to keep them in control before they could turn into invasive weed.
The trumpet vine has beautiful, tubular flowers with colours ranging from yellow, orange to red.
3. The Yellow Jasmine Shrubs
⦁ There are at least 10 varieties of jasmine shrubs for landscape uses. They are included in a group of 200 species under the genus ‘Jasminum’. From these choices, we find that the Italian jasmine (Jasminum humble), or the yellow jasmine, is a favourite for landscaping and roadside decoration. In Kuching, we can see it along Jalan Mashor from Taman BDC roundabout up to the Mile 3 roundabout, having been planted several years ago – now, it is mature and would bloomed in early August up to October. This plant is easy to manage as it requires very little attention – decent and constant pruning would get the tree formation right. As I have observed in Africa, the arts of trimming, pruning and pollarding plants are severely lacking and thus, it is sad to see the trees by the roads there with the branches and stems growing out in the most awkward way.
The jasmine petals are used for scenting many tea varieties.
⦁ Italian jasmine has glossy green leaves and produces good foliage, beautiful for landscape purposes. The yellow flowers are fragrant buttercups forming shiny black berries. It is native to Asia and can grow up to nine feet (2.7m). It tolerates full sunlight and partly shady conditions in our climate.
⦁ By the way, I believe all of us know that the jasmine flavour is famous in many tea-drinking countries all over the world. The jasmine petals are used for scenting many tea varieties – be they green, black, white or oolong. The generally preferred blooms used to flavour the tea are the common Jasmine (Jasminum officinale ) and the ‘Sampaguita’ (Jasminum sambac), which is related to the olive family (Oleaceae) that produces intensely fragrant flowers. There is a toxic variety too – the yellow jasmine from the Loganinaceae family, with a host of bad side effects.
Decent and constant pruning would get the jasmine tree formation right.
So we have some good flowers and shrubs for us to try in our home gardens now.
Happy Gardening!