| Scientific Name: | Beta vulgaris (Cicla Group) |
| Common Name: | Swiss chard, spinach beet |
| Family Name: | Amaranthaceae |
| Origin: | Europe |
| Hardiness Zone: | Zone 6: (-23 to -18 °C) |
| Plant Type: | Annual (grown as), Biennial |
| Mature Size: | 0.4 - 0.7m x 0.3 - 0.6m (height x width) |
| Habit: | Upright |
| Form: | Pyramidal - narrowly |
| Texture: | Very coarse |
| Landscape Uses: | Summer interest, Urban agriculture |
| Exposure: | Full sun, Part sun/part shade |
| Soil or Media: | Alkaline, Well-drained |
| Leaves: | Simple, Alternate, Basal, Soft flexible, Heavily veined, Pinnate venation, Lustrous, Elliptic, Oblong, Ovate, Crenate |
| Flowers: | Flowers clustered, Green, Apr-May |
| Fruit: | Multiple fruit, Brown, Jun |
| Key ID Features: | |
| Tasty vegetable up to 20-60cm tall in first year with no rounded storage root; leaves basal and then alternate on the flowering stalk the second year (biennial), most blades ovate to oblong, 10-45cm long x 5-20cm wide, ruffled and puckered cvs., thick midribs and petioles which can be red-pink-orange-yellow-green-white as are the stems. | |