Abelmoschus

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Abelmoschus

Abelmoschus is a genus of about fifteen species of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of Embryophytes. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of Spermatophyte....
s in the mallow

Malva

Malva is a genus of about 25?30 species of herbaceous annual plant, biennial plant, and perennial plants in the family Malvaceae , one of several closely related genera in the family to bear the common English name mallow....
family, Malvaceae

Malvaceae

Malvaceae, or the mallow family, is a family of flowering plants containing over 200 genera with close to 2,300 species. Judd & al. The largest genera in terms of number of species include Hibiscus , Sterculia , Dombeya , Pavonia and Sida ....
, native to tropical Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
and northern Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
. It was formerly included within Hibiscus
Hibiscus

Scientific name:Hibiscus rosa-sinensisThe Genus Hibiscus comprises plants also commonly called hibiscus and less widely known as rosemallow....
, but is now classified as a distinct genus.

The genus comprises annual

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates flowers and dies in one year. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed....
and perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. When used by gardeners or horticulturalists, this term applies specifically to perennial herbaceous plants....
herbaceous

Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaf and stem that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. A herbaceous plant may be Annual plant, Biennial plant or Perennial plant....
plants, growing to 2 m tall. The leaves

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
are 10-40 cm long and broad, palmately lobed with 3-7 lobes, the lobes are very variable in depth, from barely lobed, to cut almost to the base of the leaf.

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Encyclopedia

Abelmoschus is a genus of about fifteen species of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of Embryophytes. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms are the only extant groups of Spermatophyte....
s in the mallow

Malva

Malvaceae

Africa

Asia

Australia

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates flowers and dies in one year. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed....
and perennial

Perennial plant

Herbaceous

Leaf

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s are 4-8 cm diameter, with five white to yellow petals, often with a red or purple spot at the base of each petal. The fruit

Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
is a capsule, 5-20 cm long, containing numerous seed

Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
s.

Abelmoschus species are used as food plants by the larva

Larva

A larva is a young form of animal with indirect developmental biology, going through or undergoing metamorphosis .The larva can look completely different from the adult form, for example, a caterpillar differs from a butterfly....
e of some Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera is an order of insect that includes moths and butterfly. It is one of the most speciose orders in the class Insecta, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterfly, skipper , and Hedylidae....
species including Chionodes hibiscella
Chionodes

Chionodes is a genus of moths of the family Gelechiidae. This large group has representatives in most parts of the world. Many species of this genus utilize Douglas fir as a host plant....
which has been recorded on A. moschatus.

Selected Species

Abelmoschus caillei
Abelmoschus caillei

Abelmoschus caillei, the West African okra, is a plant species in the family Malvaceae. It occurs in West Africa and Central Africa where it is used as a vegetable....
- (syn. Hibsicus manihot var. caillei). West African okra
Abelmoschus caillei

Abelmoschus caillei, the West African okra, is a plant species in the family Malvaceae. It occurs in West Africa and Central Africa where it is used as a vegetable....
Abelmoschus esculentus - (syn. Hibiscus esculentus). Okra
Okra

Okra , also known as ladyfinger and gumbo, is a flowering plant in the Malvaceae , valued for its edible green fruits. Okra's binomial nomenclature is Abelmoschus esculentus; it is occasionally referred to by the synonym, Hibiscus esculentus L....
Abelmoschus manihot - (syn. Hibiscus manihot). Aibika
Aibika

The Aibika is a flowering plant in the mallow family Malvaceae. It was formerly considered a species of Hibiscus, but is now classified in the genus Abelmoschus....
Abelmoschus moschatus
Abelmoschus moschatus

Abelmoschus moschatus is an aromatic and medicinal plant in the Malvaceae family, which is native to India. The seeds have a sweet, flowery, heavy fragrance similar to that of musk....
- (syn. Hibiscus abelmoschus). Musk Mallow

Uses

Several species are edible, with both the young seed pods and the young leaves being eaten as a vegetable

Vegetable

The term "vegetable" generally means the Eating parts of plants. The definition of the word is traditional rather than scientific, however, and therefore the usage of the word is somewhat arbitrary and subjective, as it is determined by individual cultural customs of food selection and food preparation....
. The most important commercially-grown species is Okra

Okra

Okra , also known as ladyfinger and gumbo, is a flowering plant in the Malvaceae , valued for its edible green fruits. Okra's binomial nomenclature is Abelmoschus esculentus; it is occasionally referred to by the synonym, Hibiscus esculentus L....
.

Abelmoschus manihot (aibika) furnishes cordage like jute

Jute

Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from plants in the genus Corchorus, family Tiliaceae....
, and Abelmoschus moschatus (musk mallow) is grown for musk seeds (musk ambrette, which causes photoallergy).

Abelmoschus

Uses

Gallery