Malabar spinach is a heat-loving ornamental edible planted out in early summer. Its succulent fresh young leaves have citrus and pepper notes used most often in Asian and Indian cuisines. Cooked, it resembles regular spinach, with a more pronounced slippery texture. The sinewy burgundy stems root along the ground if left to wander or twine up available supports. It requires frequent irrigation, under dry conditions or the short days of later summer, flowers will form, and it will end its edible stage and become merely a lovely vine.