Gongura is the tart, deep-green leaf of roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa), the same hibiscus whose fleshy red calyces make the sour tea and jam known as sorrel or bissap — but here it is the sharply acidic leaf that is prized, the defining souring green of Andhra and Telangana cooking in southern India and a widely eaten cooking green across West and East Africa. Cooked down, the leaf loses none of its bracing lemony-sour bite; that natural acidity is the whole point, and it drives Andhra's most iconic dishes — gongura pachadi (a thick, fiery leaf chutney) and gongura pappu (the leaf stewed into lentils) — where the green itself, not tamarind or lime, supplies the sourness that balances the region's famous chilli heat.