Our town's newest residents are several Karen families.
While looking over their garden, I noticed an unknown (to me) shrubby plant that they had potted up several cuttings of.
The stems are very red - like our local willows. Leaves are palmate (three lobed) and toothed. They tasted to me a bit sour and musiliginious, sort of like purselane but not succulant.
The name was "Bet"-something, but I don't know if that was a Karen, Burmese or a Thai name.
Yup, it's roselle. Known as chin baung in Burmese (no, I'm not Burmese but I once sent seeds to someone who is). Being a short-day plant, the only way to propagate seeds in your zone is by growing it in a container and bringing it indoors before frost. Or, you can purchase seeds from Richters or SeedsofIndia.
