The plant has a trailing habit, and will form a thick carpet on the ground or climb through other vegetation and hang downwards.

The flowers of the plant are yellow,[8] and the fruit are small, hard capsules each with 4-10 horned seeds.

[10] German botanist Otto Kuntze placed the species in the genus Tetragonia in his 1891 work Revisio Generum Plantarum, resulting in its current binomial name.

[citation needed] The species, rarely used by indigenous people as a leaf vegetable, was first documented by Captain Cook.

[8] It spread when the explorer and botanist Joseph Banks took seeds back to Kew Gardens during the latter half of the 18th century.

According to Murdoch Riley, "to counteract the bitterness of the older leaves of this herb, the Māori boiled it with the roots of the convolvulus (pōhue)", in reference to species of Convolvulaceae now classified as Calystegia.

[19] When consumed after boiling, New Zealand spinach is 95% water, 2% carbohydrates, 1% protein, and contains negligible fat, while supplying only 12 calories (table).