Botanical name:

Tetragonia trigyna

Common name(s):

Native spinach

About:

Wild NZ Beach Spinach, a resilient plant, grows in abundance along our New Zealand coastlines. It typically flowers and produces fruit during the warmer months, its vibrant bright green colour, delightful crunchiness, and slightly salty flavour, enhanced by the sea spray, make this a lovely alternative to the more commonly known garden spinach. Both varieties grow in a sprawling mass close to the ground, unlike garden spinach, which tends to grow upright and erect. The wild spinach features spreading stalks adorned with small leaves that elegantly scramble over the ground, creating a distinctive and engaging sight along the shores.

Natural habitat:

Coastal to montane. Mostly found in coastal areas occupying a variety of habitats from cobble and sand beaches through coastal forest and shrubland, also found in exposed windshorn vegetation on cliffs and rock stacks. Occasionally found growing well inland, sometimes in farmland where it grows in barberry (Berberis spp.) hedges or on limestone and calcareous sandstone outcrops in otherwise dense forest.

Growing environment:

Sun, Drought, Coastal, Salt & Free draining tolerant.

Endemic distribution:

New Zealand’s Kermadec Islands (Herald Islets, Raoul, Macauley Islands), Three Kings, North, South and Chatham Islands. Also Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands.

Height: 30cm

Flowering: 

September – June with a yellow coloured flower/s 

Fruiting:

September - July

Uses:

Forests, Ground cover & Food

How to grow:

Easily grown from rooted pieces, stem cuttings and from fresh fruit. Although edible, Tetragonia trigyna has a decidedly less agreeable, more “soapy” taste. Like T. tetragonoides this species flourishes in a rich soil and does best grown in full sun. It can be used as a very effective ground cover in coastal situations and can be trained up walls and down cliff faces. It is reasonably drought tolerant but will not stand much frost. In New Zealand the species is highly variable and some populations, notably those from the Kermadec and Three Kings Islands have rather small leaves and a more compact growth habit which might be worth utilizing in cultivation.

** Seed germinates without pre treatment. Sow seed direct & keep moist until germination is complete.