Okra

The other day, my DC students and I were suffering the recent cold snap of weather, touring gardens around the mall, in search of some notable fall plants.  We found this at a community garden nearby.  At first glance, the leaves (and most of all the flowers) indicate the plant is in the Malvaceae (hibiscus) family, and luckily one of my students instantly recognized this as okra, or Abelmoschus esculentus.

'

Below, you can look inside the flower and see why it's so clearly a hibiscus type plant -- the sexual parts of the flower are arranged in along a staminal column - a tall sheath encloses the stems of the pistil, which emerge at the top of the column (the velvety black parts below).  Along the column, stamens and anthers extend, perpendicular to the length of the column. 

At the bottom left on both photos you can see the remaining seed pod after flowering is complete.  The pod is the actual okra forming.  Okra is distinctive by its octagonal cross section.  It's common in southern US food as well as in recipes in the middle east and southeast Asia.  Most of the recipes include stir frying or flash cooking the whole pods.  If they are slow cooked, they become a bit slimy, as the skin that breaks down in heat is mucilaginous. Slicing the pods is common in cajun food like gumbo, and in this case, any broken down 'goo' is cooked off in the soupy mix. 

Depending on the cultivars, some okras are hardy in this zone.  Typically however they are annual.