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Spinacia oleracea
Also called Spinach [plant], Spinash
Spinach is a leafy annual (rarely biennial) grown as a cool-season vegetable, with a short life cycle that bolts quickly in heat. Grow it in cool weather, in fertile soil, with steady moisture to keep leaves tender.
Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is a leafy green flowering plant native to Central and Western Asia. It is of the order Caryophyllales, family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. Its leaves are a common vegetable consumed either fresh, cooked or after storage (using preservation techniques like canning, freezing, or dehydration). The taste differs considerably between cooked and raw: the high oxalate content may be reduced by blanching.
It is an annual plant (rarely biennial), growing as tall as 30 cm (1 ft). Spinach may overwinter in temperate regions. The leaves are alternate, simple, ovate to triangular, and very variable in size: 2–30 cm (1–12 in) long and 1–15 cm (1⁄2–6 in) broad, with larger leaves at the base of the plant and small leaves higher on the flowering stem.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Spinach by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
