Here is a photo of climbing spinach as background for herbs and cover for an unsightly foundation and fence area.

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The young leaves are great for a spinach salad. They look great on the fence!

The red variety ('rubra') is a WONDERFUL burgundy color, fast grower, and very attractive (as well as edible)

'Tis true, it's edible. But I would have to be VERY hungry before I eat it. I didn't like it raw, and it was pretty bad cooked, too. And I like EVERYTHING. As far as flowering goes, it has probably flowered and you didn't know it. The "flowers" never really open up. They're just tiny white ball shapes with a tinge of pink on the tips. It really is a lovely plant, though. And easy to grow. It keeps coming up in the gravel around my raised beds.

You discovered one of my favorite edibles! I think everyone should grow it...unfortunately the slugs and sow bugs have found it this year and are eating mine down to the nubbins...oh, well, there's always next year.

There are certain types of arthritis or gout where the sufferers should not eat this plant I believe.

It has a kind of funny taste too, but grows in the heat unlike real spinach. And it is pretty.

I grew some of it this year, and couldn't hardly stomach it either, and I'll just about eat anything, too. Mine had a really slimy texture when chewed. I was surprised at how it just kept growing through the whole summer, though.

Donna: I didn't know how to eat it until we travelled to China where they stir fried it with garlic. Since then, we eat it every day, it's good to treat constipation though.
Kim

We have the climbing spinach growing in our garden and it is prolific. A great salad vegetable as well as a substitute for spinach. It goes well with cheese in a spinach and cheese tart as well as quiche. We love it. And it is so easy to grow.

I grew a green variety and found the larger leaves to be mucilaginous. I would chop them and use them in soups or stews. For salads or raw use I'd only grab the growing tips and smaller leaves. As part of a mix for salad I found it was fine but certainly not the tastiest plant I've ever had.

It's ornamental use is great and I think it's a wonderful plant to use on a trellis or fence. I'm not sure if different varieties taste differently but in sparing use it was good.

My favorite was harvesting pumpkins and making a coconut curried soup and pureeing the pumpkin in. I'd add some small leaves of the malabar into the soup for texture contrast and everyone loved it.

I find if you just pour boiling water over the leaves for a short while, this is a better way than steaming or cooking. Then just add butter and pepper/salt - lovely!! Friends here when they see my plant do not believe me when I tell them its a climbing spinach.