Beta vulgaris ''Bull's Blood''

More information at The Missouri Botanical Gardens Plant Finder site.

Bull's Blood' is an heirloom beet that is primarily grown today for its dark purplish-red leaves that make excellent additions to salads. Its tasty beetroots (hereinafter beets) can also be enjoyed. Regardless of culinary value, 'Bull's Blood' is also often grown today in beds, borders and containers solely for the ornamental effects of its excellent foliage. It typically forms a dense rosette of metallic, dark purplish-red leaves that grow in a clump to 18" tall (sometimes more). Foliage provides excellent contrast with other garden plants. Young, tender leaves (remove outer leaves first when picking) make excellent and colorful additions to salads and have many other culinary uses including use as a spinach substitute. Beets may be used in a variety of recipes that extend well beyond the classic soup (borscht). Beets are best dug and harvested when 2-3" in diameter. When cut in cross section, each beet shows attractive white zoning rings. Non-showy, greenish flowers (sometimes tinged red) appear in dense spikes. In Sweden, red food coloring may be legally produced only from this cultivar.