The Jamaican Sorrel

In order to balance out my previous, bird-related entry, I decided to post up another plant entry.  This one I also discovered by volunteering for Colloquium, which just goes to show you all the wonderful things one can learn by getting out there and serving the community. Anyways, this plant is called The Jamaican Sorrel, or better known as Roselle and it originates from the Old World tropics. All parts of the plant are eatable, and are mainly used in green salads and herbal teas since their leaves and flowers are extremely sugary and sweet.  That is what mostly caught my attention when I was shown the flower.  The volunteers were encouraged to tear off some of the leaves and try them.  Not only did that prove to us that the flower was in fact as sweet as rumored, but it also stimulated (or rather, will stimulate) the plants and encourage them to sprout more new leaves.  We could only try the leaves since the flowers weren't in full bloom yet, but I can testify that the flower is as good as it was boasted to be.  It tasted like cranberries, and I couldn't stop myself from slowly picking off a large amount of leaves in order to taste them again.  My briefly lived addiction to it might have also been because I was extremely hungry at the time, but the flavor was nevertheless wonderfully sweet.  I would buy a tea made from this plant any day; though, I might have to water it down a little so I'm not overwhelmed buy sugary goodness.