Bower Spinach

Scientific Name: Tetragonia implexicoma

Description: This common Bluff plant has fleshy, spade-shaped edible leaves and for most of the year can be found with small, fragrant, yellow four-petalled flowers.

Bower Spinach tolerates extreme dry and salty conditions and grows in full sun. It is invaluable as a soil stabiliser and ground cover and readily climbs if support is provided, creating bowers over trees or shrubs. The succulent red berries are an important food source for birds and lizards.

The leaves and berries are a traditional food source for the Wadawurrung and the leaves were used to grow over huts for camouflage.

Plant form: Scramblers, climbers and twiners
Where to find: Across the entire Bluff
Foliage: Thick, bright green, spade-shaped leaves to 8cm long
Flower: Single, scented, small pale-yellow flowers on long stalks
Flowering: August – November