Roselle ( Hibiscus sahdariffa hj 



EUGENE SCIIOFIELD HEATH 

 POMONA COLLEGE 



]\rany plants were brought to the warmer parts of the United States more 

 than a hundred years ago hy the Catholic padres, and the colonists who fol- 

 lowed in the wake of the cross have, in most cases, been slow to continue the 

 spread of the ciUtivation of those plants. Some which were perennial, have 

 withstood the changes of the years and are now horticultural landmarks, and 

 it has remained for the present generation to realize the economic value of 

 those plants and to extend their culture. Within very recent years has the 

 olive been put on a paying basis in California ; it is within the last four years 

 that the avocado or ahuacate has been planted as an orchard fruit ; the white 

 sapote has not even yet been put out in acreage. Plants introduced even more 

 recently are still in many cases, specimen plants; for example, the mango, 

 which, to be sure, is out in acreage in southern Florida, the cherimoya, the 

 Queensland nut, the Feijoa, the black sapote, and others still less common. 

 These are all trees or somewhat tree-like. 



Several years ago there was introduced into the United States the roselle, 

 known botanically as Hibiscus sahdariffa L., of the family Malvacea?, and a 

 close relative of Ilibiscus esculentus L. (okra), Ilibiscus sinensis Hort. (the 

 Chinese Hibiscus), Gossypium L. (cotton), Althea L., Abutilon Tourn. (the 

 flowering maple), Malva L., and others. The plant was probably first intro- 

 duced into the United States from Mexico or the West Indies although it is 

 probably a native of the eastern continent where its cultivation is of long 

 standing. It was probably first introduced into California from Au.stralia. 

 It does well in warm, rather dry climates. It is an annual and on account 

 of its fruiting in a .single season, it is a valuable plant in newly settled coun- 

 tries. The seed is usually planted in February and March, and in a .single 

 season the bushy plant may attain a height about equaling that of a man. The 

 leaves vary from entire leaves on young plants to five-parted leaves on older 

 and larger plants and to three-parted leaves, in the axils of which the flowers 

 are borne. The flowers are large and yellow with red centers. They last for 

 only one day. Within three weeks after flowering the calyxes usually enlarge 

 to a length of from one and a fourth inclies to two inches and a ^\^dth of three- 

 fourths of an inch to one and a fourth inches. By this time the calyx is a 

 bright, clear, red, pointed structure enveloping a round, hard, green seed pod 

 and subtended by bright, clear, red bracts. This u.sually occurs in October 

 and November. 



While roselle has long been cultivated in parts of the far east as a fiber 

 crop, the young stems, also, are used in making jelly, but the most common 

 use of the plant is made of the reddened calyxes and bracts, from which a tart 

 sauce is manufactured. By cutting off the basal end of the bracteate caly^ 

 far enough up to cut into the cavity of the calyx, one may very readily squeeze 



