African Leafy Vegetables

Experimental Cultivation

Amaranthus dubius (wild spinach) and African Spider Flower grown experimentally in our backyard. Both plants are easy to cultivate and grow vigorously. African Spider Flower appears more drought-resistant, while Amaranthus requires more water.

The leaves of this Amaranthus species can be eaten raw or cooked. The leaves of African Spider Flower must be cooked. Seeds from both plants are easy to harvest and store for the next planting season. Under suitable climate conditions, Spider Flower can be cultivated continuously, while Amaranth is better suited as a seasonal crop. We planned to introduce these plants into local communities during our 2014 planting season.

Other Amaranthus Species

Other species include Amaranthus spinosus (spiny pigweed) and Amaranthus hybridus (cockscomb). Although relatively easy to control and not highly competitive, they are recognised as weeds among crops in North America and many other regions. They readily grow in disturbed areas and are often regarded as unwanted plants.

Nevertheless, these species have strong potential to supplement diets in areas where other vegetables and grains are scarce. They contain high levels of calcium, phosphorus, sodium and magnesium, together with smaller amounts of manganese, copper, zinc and iron.

A study by the Durban University of Technology and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, published in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, analysed the nutritional content of various traditional leafy vegetables and produced remarkable results. You can read the article “Preliminary assessment of nutritional value of traditional leafy vegetables in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa” here.

African Leafy Vegetables in South Africa

In this article, the term “African leafy vegetables” was adopted to refer to the collective of plant species that are used as leafy vegetables and which are referred to as morogo or imifino by African people in South Africa. The function is central to this indigenous concept, which is subject to spatial and temporal variability in terms of plant species that are included as a result of diversity in ecology, culinary repertoire, and change over time. As a result, the concept embraces indigenous, indigenized, and recently introduced leafy vegetable species but this article is concerned mainly with the indigenous and indigenized species. In South Africa, the collection of these two types of leafy vegetables from the wild, or from cultivated fields where some of them grow as weeds, has a long history that has been intimately linked to women and their traditional livelihood tasks. Among poor people in remote rural areas, the use of these types of leafy vegetables is still common but nationwide there is evidence of decline, particularly in urban areas. The cultivation of indigenous or indigenized leafy vegetables is restricted to a narrow group of primarily indigenized species in South Africa. Seven groups of indigenous or indigenized African leafy vegetables that are important in South Africa were given special attention and their local nomenclature, ecology, use and cultivation are discussed.

— Research article, University of Pretoria: W.S. Jansen van Rensburg, W. van Averbeke, R. Slabbert, M. Faber, P. van Jaarsveld, I. van Heerden, F. Wenhold and A. Oelofse. (Full article)

Plants discussed in the article

• Amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus)
• Spider Flower (Cleome gynandra)
• Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis)
• Nightshade (Solanum retroflexum)
• Jew’s Mallow (Corchorus olitorius)
• Bitter Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)
• Cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata)

These plants hold great promise for supplementing diets across Africa and deserve further study by anyone interested in sustainable food-security solutions.

• Re-Creating Awareness of Traditional Leafy Vegetables in Communities — Voster, I.H.J.; Jansen van Rensburg, W.; Van Zijl, J.J.B.; Venter, S.L. (African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, Vol. 7, No. 4, 2007)
• Conservation of African Leafy Vegetables in South Africa — Van Rensburg, W.J.; Voster, I.H.J.; Van Zijl, J.J.B.; Venter, S.L. (African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, Vol. 7, No. 4, 2007)

Summary of Revival Efforts

In the early 1990s, scientists in Kenya noticed that traditional African leafy vegetables (ALVs) were rapidly disappearing from farmers’ fields and people’s tables. Bioversity International and its partners in Kenya set out to reverse this trend. Between 1996 and 2004 they collected, characterised and analysed the nutritional values of ALVs, identified priority species, enhanced genetic material, and improved horticultural practices, marketing and processing.

Nutritional Benefits of Amaranthus

Amaranthus seeds can be milled into a nutritious flour and the leaves are also edible. The plant grows to about 1.5 metres tall. White seeds are best for milling into flour.

Amaranthus has been proposed as an inexpensive native crop that could be cultivated by indigenous communities in rural areas for several reasons:

1. It is easy to harvest.
2. Its seeds are a good source of protein. Compared with other grains, amaranth is unusually rich in the essential amino acid lysine. Common grains such as wheat and maize are comparatively rich in amino acids that amaranth lacks; thus amaranth and other grains can complement each other.
3. The seeds of Amaranthus species contain about 30 % more protein than cereals such as rice, sorghum and rye. In cooked form, amaranth is competitive with wheat germ and oats — higher in some nutrients and lower in others.
4. It is easy to cook. As befits its weedy life history, amaranth grows very rapidly. Large seed heads can weigh up to 1 kg and contain up to half a million seeds in some species.

Source: Wikipedia – Amaranth. Photo credit: wikipedia.org