Shi Liu Pi

Punica granatum, the pomegranate, is a small deciduous tree or large shrub in the family Lythraceae, native to a region stretching from Iran to northern India and cultivated since antiquity throughout the Mediterranean, Middle East, and subtropical Asia. It typically grows 3-8 meters tall, with slender, often thorny branches and reddish-brown bark. The opposite or sub-opposite, narrowly oblong, glossy leaves are 3-7 cm long with entire margins. Showy, tubular, bright red-orange flowers with crumpled, crepe-like petals and a thick fleshy calyx open in late spring. The fruit is a distinctive globose, leathery-skinned berry (balausta), 5-12 cm across, crowned by the persistent calyx and containing many juicy, ruby-red arils each enclosing a hard seed. Shi Liu Pi is the dried fruit rind.