My friends from India call it “BA-sa-la” (Phonetically) Scientifically: Basella alba It is known under various common names in English, including Pui, vine spinach, red vine spinach, climbing spinach, creeping spinach, buffalo spinach, malabar spinach and ceylon spinach among others. I found a link to it on Walter’s site while searching for New Zealand spinach http://www.walterreeves.com/food-gardening/malabar-spinach/ The stem of the cultivar Basella alba ‘Rubra’ is reddish-purple. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basella_alba

I grew New Zealand Spinach many years ago and mine did not look quite like this(different seeds). However, I am currently growing something that looks like this. I will try to get you a foreign name for it. The plant was given to my brother 3 years ago by a Chinese woman. I saved the purple staining seed pods and grew it the past two years. Last year a woman from India could not believe I was growing this favorite Indian plant. Show the picture to any Indian or Chinese and I bet they could tell us what it is. The first year I picked and ate individual leaves (very time consuming). I have since discovered that the end 10-12 inches of the stem is cut with the leaves attached and the whole piece is eaten steamed or stir-fried. This plant loves hot dry weather. It has a very “spinachy” taste and grows all summer up to frost.

New Zealand spinach