Chaya “Jumbo Leaf” – Some Stinging Hairs

This is a new exciting variety of chaya. This incredible perennial vegetable is often called Mayan spinach or tree spinach and is used as a cooked green. This new variety “Jumbo Leaf” is not yet distributed amongst gardeners in Florida or other warm states. The leaves are exceptionally large compared to more readily available varieties and represents a huge improvement over the old standard types. As shown in the photo, some of the leaves can be as wide as 15 inches! This is a high quality eating variety with leaves being tender. We have worked hard to grow this out as fast as possible to make available because it is very special.

This Chaya can have some stinging hairs, as is typical of many types of Chaya in Central America. These seem to become more abundant during stress periods such as drought or cool weather. A little caution during harvesting renders these stinging hairs not such a big deal for most people. Cooking eliminates the hairs on the leaves. We find the hairs to be more likely to irritate during pruning or brushing up against the plant rather than during harvest. There’s a bit of a trade-off here for the massive size of the leaves.

Price reflects our shortage of cuttings and the rareness of this variety. Please research safe consumption of chaya before consuming.

We mail 5 unrooted cuttings with at least two nodes, with their upright orientation marked. Cuttings roughly one foot long. Cuttings are packed with some moisture to ensure quality during transit. Cuttings are mostly green tissue due to the newness of this variety and our plants being relatively young. Green tissued cuttings can be more prone to rot, so we recommend rooting in a well draining media with a lot of perlite or other coarse material.  Cnidoscolus aconitifolius.