Malabar spinach

* Common name: Malabar spinach

* Botanical name: Basella alba ‘Rubra’

* What it is: A twining annual vine that’s easy to grow from seed and tolerant of our hottest heat waves. The red-stemmed type (‘Rubra’) is the most attractive. The stems are purplish-red, and the veins of the spinach-like leaves are a similar color, making the plant most valuable as a summer ornamental vine. Although the leaves are edible, they’re succulent and “mucilaginous” (i.e. slimy), which is a texture not everyone likes. Vines twine themselves up supports.

* Size: Fast-grower up to 8 or 10 feet with support.

* Where to use: Grow up any sunny trellis or arbor, including in or at the entrance to a vegetable garden. Or plant seeds at the base of light posts, down spouts and radon pipes. Netting or string helps them climb. Full sun to part shade.

* Care: Plant seeds from mid-May through mid-summer. Fastest growth is when temperatures top 90 degrees. Water weekly in hot, dry weather. Fertilizer usually isn’t needed, especially if compost or timed-release fertilizer was added at planting. Malabar spinach (not a true spinach) is sensitive to cold and will die at the first sign of frost.

* Great partner: Purple-podded beans are good color partners in a vegetable-garden setting. Purple coneflowers and pink phlox and liatris are good summer-blooming perennial partners in an ornamental bed.