Corchorus olitorius (Egyptian spinach)

Corchorus olitorius

Family: Malvaceae

Common names: Egyptian spinach, Indian jute, wild jute, bush okra, Jew’s mallow, West African sorrel, jute mallow, tossa jute, wilde jute, Indiese jute.

It is a robust, erect, annual herb or short-lived perennial, up to 2 m tall in the wild and it can grow to 4 m tall when planted for commercial use. It is fairly well-branched and has a taproot that leads to a sturdy, hairless stem, which is green with a faint, reddish brown hue, and sometimes turns a little woody at ground level. The leaves are ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, 60 to 100 mm long and 20 to 40 mm wide. The plant bears yellow flowers that are solitary or in 2-flowered cymes, at the tip of a short stem, opposite the leaf. It is a leading leaf vegetable in most parts of Africa, including South Africa, where it falls under the category of leafy vegetables called morogo. All the parts of the plant have always been used as medicine to treat many sicknesses in many parts of the world. Leaves – raw or cooked. Young leaves are added to salads whilst older leaves are cooked as a pot-herb. The leaves quickly become mucilaginous when cooked. High in protein. The dried leaves can be used as a thickener in soups. Leaves and young shoots are normally harvested when about 20 – 30cm long. A tea is made from the dried leaves. Immature fruits are added to salads or used as a potherb.

Sowing instructions:  Soak the seeds for 24 hours before propagation for best germination results. A good time to sow the seed is at the start of the rainy season. The plants must not be grown in full shade as it does best where there is exposure to sun.

Locality: Ex Hort. Harvest: June 2024