With a name just as pretty as its flowers, this hibiscus relative produces sweet-tart “fruit” that taste like cranberries! Delicious in sauces, syrups & drinks, easy to grow and, unlike true cranberries, no bog required!
Know it:
If you’re plant savvy, you may notice that Roselle flower looks a lot like hibiscus flowers. Gold star for you! Roselle is in the same tribe as many other well-known plants including Okra, Ornamental Hibiscus, & Rose of Sharon.
See the family resemblance? Roselle’s on the left, Althea is in the middle and Okra is on the right. Roselle is a member of a the mallow family, which are a very useful group of plants. To name a few more, there’s cotton, hollyhocks, and marsh mallows. No, not the squishy confection: Marsh mallow is a plant that was the original source of the marshmallow candy’s flavoring! (But that’s a plant for another day.)
Roselle originated in the Old World tropics, although there doesn’t seem to be a consensus on whether it comes from Asia or Africa. Regardless, its tropical origins mean that this plant can take the heat — which we’ve got plenty of in Texas!
The primary use of roselle is for the fleshy calyxes that it produces around the seed pods after the flowers drop off. A calyx is the sepals of the flower, which in most other plants look the green outermost petals. Here a photo on the difference between petals and sepals:
For the Roselle plant, however, after the plant blooms and the petals drop off, the sepals swell and turn a deep purplish-red. They’re rather like thick and juicy, sour and sweet flower petals. If you’re a botany/fruit nerd, this qualifies roselle as an “accessory fruit,” like strawberries.
In addition to the “cranberries” it produces, the leaves and flower petals are edible as well. The leaves have a bit of a sour taste, much like other plants commonly known as “sorrel”
Another use of roselle that is worth mentioning is that young roselle plants are grown for bast fiber production. The rough fiber can be used to make rope and a rough fabric that can substitute for materials like jute in making burlap.
Meet it:
If you want to get your hands on some Roselle — you’re in luck! It turns up quite a lot in different products, but it’s usually sold under different names.
You can buy the dried “flowers” (technically the calyx, remember? Not a flower) at most supermarkets under their Spanish name: Flor de Jamaica. (They’re usually near the dried chiles)
You can also sometimes find them canned in syrup. They’re usually marketed for making cocktails, usually under the name “hibiscus flowers.”
Hibiscus flowers? Yep! This is plant is the source of that hibiscus tea that a certain Seattle based coffee company made an expensive drink out of!
Roselle tea (technically a tisane) has actually been enjoyed in a multitude of countries all over the world — long before corporations were making pretentious beverages out of it.
Grow it:
If you want to get this plant on your hands to grow it, you can find the seeds online (I bought mine from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.) You can also get the seeds from a friend! It’s also possible to take cuttings, if you know how to do so.
Roselle needs a long growing season, a lot of sun, and a lot of space. Once it’s off to a good start, it’s really not fussy about where it grows.
It’s a good plant for an area that you may not access as often as others, or where a water source is a little farther away. It’s a great edible ornamental plant!
Unfortunately, the edible leaves have been a favorite of deer in my neighborhood. So if they frequent your area, don’t be surprised if you find your plant chomped down to bits!
In my own experience, I’ve seen Roselle survive without irrigation in shallow, rocky soil with few amendments other than a little mulch on top. I was very impressed! I can tell you that very few plants can survive those brutal conditions.
Of course, you don’t want your plants to merely survive, you want them to thrive! The more organic matter you have in your soil, and the more water you give them, the happier they will be! And happy equals a bigger harvest.
Here’s an important thing to note, however. This plant is day-length sensitive. That means it won’t start making flowers until the days shorten. In summer, when days are long, all this plant cares about is growing as big and strong and healthy as it can. But once fall comes, and the days shorten, it loads up with flowers and subsequent calyxes.
Eat it
You can eat the leaves, flower petals, and the red calyxes of the Roselle.
The leaves are used as a leaf vegetable. I haven’t had the chance to cook with them much, but I have tasted them. They have a sour taste, much like several unrelated plant species that share the common name “sorrel.”
But the best part is the calyxes, which need a little more processing than cranberries do. Calyxes surround a seed pod that resembles a small rounded okra (which, technically, are edible as well, but I remove them to avoid making the final product mucilaginous; I’ll experiment with leaving them in another time).
Turn the calyxes into “cranberry sauce” or syrup, or dehydrate them for later use. They also freeze well.
