Okra

The wild okra crop originated along Nile in Egypt Historians surmise that the crop spread to Egypt and other parts of North Africa before traveling into the Mediterranean and India. Spanish Moors advanced the spread of the crop further East in the following centuries. Okra leaves are heart-shaped and three- to five-lobed. The flowers are yellow with a crimson centre. The fruit, or pod, hairy at the base, is a tapering 10-angled capsule 10–25 cm (4–10 inches) in length (except in the dwarf varieties) that contains numerous oval dark-coloured seeds