Cnidoscolus aconitifolius
species of plant
Cnidoscolus aconitifolius, commonly known as chaya, tree spinach, Mayan tree spinach, or spinach tree, is a large, fast-growing and leafy perennial shrub in the spurge family Euphorbiaceae.
The plant is native to Mexico. As with most euphorbias, the plant exudes an irritating, often toxic latex when damaged. The plant is cultivated in warm climates for its leaves that are cooked and eaten like spinach.
Description
The plant can grow up to 5 metres (16 ft) tall. The leaves are palmately lobed with three or more lobes that are also lobed themselves, and measure 10–30 cm (4–12 in) across depending on the age and variety.
Small white flowers are arranged in a terminal panicle held well above the surrounding foliage. The ellipsoid seed pods have longitudinal stripes and measure about 1.5 cm (1⁄2 in) across; they are green when immature, turning pale yellow to tan and explosively dehiscing on maturity. Mature seed pods are rarely seen on cultivated specimens so they are often vegetatively propagated; flowers on such specimens are either sterile or seldom produced.
Similar species
As suggested by its Latin name, the species may resemble members of Aconitum.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Cnidoscolus aconitifolius” as species of plant. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of plant. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 27, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q928244. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cnidoscolus aconitifolius” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.