Region: east Asia, Pakistan, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka
Habitat: dry, subtropical and tropical forests; moist, gravelly-loamy soils.
Content: vitamin A; good source of energy and micronutrients.
Use: food, edible seeds; leaves and young shoots, cooked and eaten as a vegetable; leaves, boiled for dishes as bhaji; leaves boiled in water, for bread; medicine.
BotanyHerb; evergreen; climber.
Stems: woody with age; twining, scramble over the ground or climb into the surrounding vegetation.