Species: Spinacia oleracea
English Name: Spinach
Chinese Name: 菠菜
Family: Chenopodiaceae
Description:
Plants to 1 m tall. Root reddish, rarely white, conic. Stem simple or few branched, hollow. Leaf blade light green, hastate to ovate, slightly succulent, margin entire or with a few lobelike teeth. Male flowers: perianth segments usually 4; filaments filiform, flattened; anthers without an appendage. Fruiting bracts slightly compressed, with a thornlike appendage on each side, apex with 2 teeth; stigmas exserted. Utricle ovoid or subglobose, compressed, ca. 2.5 mm in diam.; pericarp brown.
Photos used under a Creative Commons license
References:
– Wu ZY, Raven PH, Hong DY (eds) (2003). Flora of China, Volume 5: Ulmaceae through Basellaceae. Science Press, Beijing, and Missouri Bot Garden Press, St. Louis