Featured Plant: Jewels of Opar

Jewels of Opar, or Talinum paniculatum, is a longstanding favorite. Its playful blooms and seedpods add a splash of magic to any garden. Try munching on its leaves for a juicy, nutrient-dense garden snack.

Yard

Jewels of Opar is a succulent perennial native in much of the Southern United States. It is a hardy, determined little plant that does well in full-sun, but can also tolerate some shade. There are several cultivars of the plant, including some with variegated leaves. It looks great in clusters as an alternative to non-native evergreens, retaining a joyful green coloration year round.

Beginning in June, it shoots out dainty stalks of sweet little flowers. These eye-catching pink color bursts continue to produce well into the Fall, even with minimal maintenance. As each flower fades into fruit form, it leaves behind a tiny jewel-toned orb. These fanciful seedpods keep the plant visually interesting even after flowering.

Body

Jewels of Opar is also totally edible! It’s a favorite gardening snack of ours, with its crunchy and earthy leaves. August in New Orleans is a tricky time for growing greens. As the movement to source food locally grows stronger and stronger, the difficulty of getting that leafy Vitamin K deep in the delta is real.

There are plenty of widely celebrated heat-tolerant greens, but most of them originated in South America or Southeast Asia, like Sweet Potato leaves and Malabar Spinach. Jewels of Opar takes it one step further.

A member of the Purslane family, these juicy leaves are packed with good stuff.

Spirit

It is utterly neglectful to overlook the spirit of a plant. What joy can it bring us? How does it sing? Jewels of Opar works as a cut flower in fresh arrangements, and it shines even more when dried and paired with grasses and branches. There is something pure magic about the bursts of perfectly round seeds on Jewels’ stalks, and we love the eternality of a plant whose beauty continues beyond its green life.