Plant · P-315

Roselle

Sabdariffa gossypiifolia

Roselle is grown for its tart red calyx - the fleshy part left after the flower drops - eaten raw in salads, cooked into jelly and sauce, or steeped into the bissap or sorrel drink found across West Africa and the Caribbean. It is a genuinely good hot-climate crop that also yields edible leaves and stems with a rhubarb-like tang, roasted seed, and a strong stem fiber used for sackcloth and cord. The catch is timing: as a short-day plant it does not flower until day length shortens in autumn, which turns the calyx harvest into a race against the first freeze, so an early-flowering variety and prompt spring sowing matter more than for most crops.