Plant notes…
Mizuna
An Asian vegetable with edible leaf and flowers that attract bees.
Published in
3 min readJan 19, 2025
Story and photos: © Russ Grayson. Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND
Common name:
- mizuna
- Japanese mustard greens
- spider mustard
Botanic name
Family: Brassicacae
Genus: Brassica
Species: rapa
Varieties
- around 10.
Centre of diversity
- Japan, grown since ancient times
- may have originated in China.
Growth form
- small bush to around 35cm
- dark green, serrated, deeply lobed leaves
- small yellow flowers with four petals often in clusters.
Useful part
- leaf.
Uses
- food — leaf adds a mild mustard flavor
- can be cooked, refrigerated for several days, used in cooking
- said to be a source of vitamins A, C, K and minerals calcium, iron, potassium.
Reproduction
- seed.
Cultivation
- cool climate plant
- cold tolerant
- fast growing
- prefers full sun or partial shade
- well-drained soil with pH 6.5–7.0
- 20cm spacing between plants
- can be grown as a microgreen at 3cm spacing
- can be used as an intercrop eg. between rows of corn
- self-seeds readily.
Notes
Name comes from the Japanese: mizu-water + na-green (Miriam Webster Dictionary).
Successfully grown on the International Space Station in 2019.
