PlantFiles: Strawberry Sticks, Strawberry Spinach, Strawberry Blite
Chenopodium capitatum

The neutral rating is due to lack of long-term experience with strawberry spinach; last year was the first I've tried it, so I don't yet know if it'll be real "pesky" (invasive-wise) or not.

I found it to be a delightful plant, leaves & "berries" alike. I like the flavor of the sweet red things - sort of corn-like, but with lots of other overtones. Great in salads.

It does contain oxalic acid, but that's not a concern unless you plan on using it as a mainstay of your diet!

We'll see what I think after the 2010 growing season.

It was a nice trial in my vegetable garden for the first year, growing with fennel and making a lovely scene. But strawberry spinach is a real weed since it produces tons of seeds ! I now have to dig it up each spring in my yard. Leaves are suitable as a substitute of spinach but don't expect something of the fruits : it looks like a strawberry but tastes like a sickly sweet beet !

Widely known as Strawberry Blite. Grown in Europe for centuries. Self-seeding annual.

45 days Tender, fast-growing greens with a delicate flavor. Try raw in salads (good mesclun ingredient) or cooked like spinach and chard. As a bonus, the small, red berries are cheerful as well as edible, and can be mashed, in quantities, to make a juice or to color other foods. Attractive enough to grow in gardens or containers.

The flowers turn into red during setting seeds and look like little strawberries. They taste a litle sweet. It can be grown as a vegetable for its leaves that taste and can be cooked like spinach.

The tiny flowers produce a small fruit that looks like a tiny strawberry and is edible, although not especially tasty. It will easily grow in a container.