Dried leaves can be ground to a powder and then used in marinades or to flavor vegetables. This small tree grows fairly slowly and is attractive. It tends to send up many suckers from the roots. It produces small white flowers which beneficial insects like to feed upon. Later, edible purple fruits develop, but may be hidden under new foliage.
Irrigation is helpful in the dry season.
Our tree froze back to about 1 inch diameter branches in the Dec. '89 hard freeze, but soon had thick bushy regrowth. Lipstick Tree , Bixa orellana, is a small bushy tree and is the source of the natural coloring, annatto, used to color foods such as cheddar cheese. In Spanish, annatto may be called 'achiote'. Inside each pod are maybe 40-50 seeds not larger than a peppercorn. The processed seeds are the source of the tropical spice, annatto.