Tetragonia tetragonioides, not a relation of ordinary spinach, but a creeping perennial with flat, thick, bright green leaves, which belongs to the same family as the iceplant. The seed pods float and are borne naturally for long distances on ocean currents. Thus, besides growing in New Zealand and Australia, the plant is found in the Pacific islands, Japan, and S. America.
In New Zealand it is a coastal plant, eaten by the Maori; names in use there include kokihi, vengamutu, and warrigal cabbage. It has become less plentiful since the introduction of sheep into the country, but is now cultivated in many vegetable gardens. Captain Cook, when he was exploring New Zealand in 1770, realized its importance as a green and anti-scorbutic vegetable, had it gathered in quantity, and persuaded the ship's company to eat it by having it served to the officers in cooked green pottages or salads. It was Sir Joseph Banks, his botanist, who took the plant back to England where it was grown in Kew Gardens. By the 19th century New Zealand spinach, known also as ‘Botany Bay greens’, had become a popular summer spinach in England and America. An incidental but interesting point is that Botany Bay was originally going to be called Sting-ray's Harbour, since several large sting-rays had been caught and eaten there. But, as Banks recorded in his diary: ‘We had with it a dish of the leaves of tetragonia cornuta [the then name for New Zealand spinach] boil'd, which eat as well as spinage or very near it.’ This and other botanical discoveries prompted the change of name.
The great 19th-century French writer Alexandre Dumas père committed what has become a notorious anachronism when he had d'Artagnan, one of his Three Musketeers, be offered in the 17th century a dish of ‘tetragon’, this vegetable whose discovery lay a century ahead.
New Zealand spinach differs greatly from true spinach, but has a somewhat similar flavour. A tendency to bitterness can be countered by changing the water while cooking it.
Other edible Tetragonia spp occur in S. Africa.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
