According to the picture provided, this is hollyhock, not okra. Hollyhocks and okra are indeed very similar. Hollyhocks belong to traditional Chinese medicine. Both marshmallows and okra bear fruit. The fruits of okra can be eaten as vegetables. Plants that do not bear fruit cannot reproduce.

There are three reasons why okra and hollyhock are easily confused:

1. Ancient literature records that hollyhock is okra;

2. CCTV Travel Channel March 10, 2009 Key points of "Okra" cultivation technology: Okra (Hibiscus esculentus L.) is also known as okra, hollyhock, croissant (pepper) and lamb's horn... Some news media such as TV stations report it as cannabis.

3. The pharmaceutical factory says that this flower is hollyhock, which is a raw material for kidney disease medicine. Folks say that this flower is a vegetable.

So that they cannot be distinguished.

The simplest differences:

1. The bracts (paracalyx) of hollyhock have 4 to 5 lobes and are wide, while the bracts of okra have 6 to 12;

2. The flowers of hollyhock are 10 to 22 centimeters large, while the flowers of okra are 5 to 7 centimeters smaller;

3. Okra (long) has pepper-like fruits.

The Latin name of okra is Abelmoschus esculentus L.Moench

Also known as lady's finger, coffee okra, eggplant, eggplant (called foreign pepper in Pingxiang, Jiangxi, China), Vietnamese sesame (Hunan) ), lady's finger (Guangdong).

The family belongs to the Malvaceae family and the genus Okra

It is native to India and is now widely cultivated in the tropics and subtropics. Distribution and habitat in China: It is occasionally cultivated in Yuanjiang, Kunming, Xishuangbanna, Gengma and other places in Yunnan. It is cultivated in Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and Hebei provinces in my country, especially in Hunan and Hubei.

Morphological characteristics: annual herbaceous plant with well-developed root system and strong absorptive capacity. The stem is upright and branched, sparsely covered with bristles, 1 to 2.5 meters high; the leaves are shaped, palmate, with 3 to 7 deep lobes (usually 5 lobes). , about 10 to 30 cm in diameter, the lobes are lanceolate, the apex is acuminate, the edges are coarsely toothed and notched, and both sides are covered with sparse bristles; the petiole is slender, about 7 to 15 cm, hollow, covered with long bristles; the support is The leaves are linear, about 7 to 10 mm long, covered with sparse bristles. The flowers are solitary in the leaf axils. The pedicel is about 1 to 2 cm long and sparsely covered with hispid hairs. The bracts are 6 to 12 linear, about 1.5 cm long and covered with sparsely bristly hairs. The calyx is bell-shaped and the smaller bracts are slightly longer. , densely covered with star-like short hairs; the corolla is yellow, with a purple center, about 5 to 7 cm in diameter, and the petals are obovate, about 4 to 5 cm in length. The flowering period is from May to September. Capsule, tower-shaped oblong, like a sheep's horn, about 10-22 cm long, 1.5-2 cm in diameter, green or red, with a long beak at the long end, sparsely covered with rough hairs; seeds are spherical, gray-black, about 4 in diameter ~5 mm, with hairy veins, and a thousand-grain weight of about 55 grams.

Growth habits like warm, humid and sunny environment, drought and humidity tolerance, intolerant to cold, intolerant to waterlogging, afraid of water accumulation and wind blowing, wide adaptability to soil, suitable for loose, fertile, well-drained sandy loam soil medium growth.

The English name of hollyhock is Flower of Sunset Abelmoschus

Alternately known as hollyhock, cotton sunset, golden flower, water cotton, cotton seven, cotton wormwood, small cotton, stream hemp, wild hibiscus, Wild beetle, okra, leopard eye flower, tyrant umbrella, side marigold.

Latin plant, animal and mineral names: 1.Abelmoschus manihot (L.) Medic.[Hibiscus manihot L.]

2.Abelmoschus manihot (L.)Medic.var pungens(Roxb .)Hochr.

Original form 1. Hollyhock is an annual or perennial stout upright herb, 1 to 2 meters high. There are purple-red spots on the stems, and the vegetable cover has long bristles.

The leaves are alternate; the petiole is 6 to 18 cm long, and the vegetable cover is bristly; the stipules are lanceolate, 1 to 1.5 cm long. The leaves are large, oval to nearly round, palmately shaped with 5 to 9 deep lobes, 15 to 30 cm in diameter or more, the lobes are oblong-lanceolate, 8 to 18 cm long, 1 to 6 cm wide, and the two sides are long. Stiff bristles with coarsely serrated edges. The flowers are solitary in the leaf axils and branch tips, forming nearly racemes; the bracts are 4 to 5, linear-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 1.5 to 3 cm long, 0.5 to 1 cm wide, and the vegetable cover has long bristles. , persistent; the calyx is bract-shaped, 5-lobed, nearly entire, longer than the bracts, pubescent, and falls off when fruiting; the corolla has 5 petals, light yellow or white, the inner base is purple, the flower is large, about 10 in diameter ~22 cm; numerous stamens, column length 1.5~2cm, anthers nearly sessile, combined into a tube shape; pistil stigma purple-black, spatulate-disk-shaped, 5-branched, ovary 5-chambered. The flowering period is from August to October. The capsule is oval-elliptic, with a pointed end, 4 to 7.5 cm long, 2.5 to 3 cm in diameter, and densely covered with white bristles. There are many seeds, kidney-shaped, with many stripes composed of pubescence.

2. The difference between this variant and the previous species is: the entire plant is densely covered with long yellow bristles.

Habitat distribution Ecological environment: often grows in valley grass, field edges or ditch-side shrubs. It is an excellent ornamental grass and flower, which is widely cultivated among the people, but has not been widely used in gardens.

1. Distributed in central and southwestern China, Hebei, Shaanxi, Shandong, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian and other places.

2. Distributed in southwest China, Taiwan, Hubei, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and other places.