Ceylon spinach
ಬಸಳೆपोईபசளி
Basella alba L.
- light
- Full sun
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 1.4 m
- wide
- 76 cm
Basellaceae
Also called Malabar Spinach
Formerly Basella cordifolia, Basella crassifolia, Basella japonica, Basella lucida, and 5 more
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Climbing subshrubKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- Wet tropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Trop. AsiaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 91 cm to 1.8 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 61 cm to 91 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- White, purpleRead from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: coldest it survives, heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Chinese
- 落葵, 落葵子, 落葵花
- German
- Malabarspinat
- Spanish
- Espinaca China, Espinaca de Malabar
- Finnish
- Malabarinpinaatti
- French
- Épinard de Malabar
- Slovenian
- cejlonska špinača
- Turkish
- Çin Ispanağı
- Simplified Chinese
- 木耳菜, 染绛子, 潺菜
- Hindi
- पोई
- Tamil
- பசளி
- Telugu
- బచ్చలి కూర
- Kannada
- ಬಸಳೆ
Where this comes from
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-26, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY 4.0
- 3D model: Basella alba (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.