Bidens pilosa or commonly known as Black Jack or Cobbler’s Pegs.
It was cooked for me as a kid while on a school safari excursion. It makes a great spinach substitute when cooked with finely chopped onions, and has many medicinal benefits.
This plant is found throughout tropical Africa and other warm climates around the world. Only the young leaves and shoots are edible, cooked like spinach. Blackjack is prepared with the leaves of pumpkin and one of the
Coccinia species. It is widely harvested as a weed, but is also cultivated. It is most commonly dried for winter use. Young plants are said to have a high nutritive value, although the leaf has an astringent taste (Fox and Young 1982).
*the sweet onion combination will take away the astringency
Benefits:
Bidens pilosa L. is an edible herb and has been traditionally used for a wide range of ailments in many countries.
Various types of preparations, extracts and individual compounds derived from this plant have been found to possess biological and pharmacological activities such as anti-malarial, anti-allergy, anti-hypertensive and smooth muscle relaxant, anti-cancerogenic, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, antioxidant.
