Species
+

Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench

Antsigini gombo, Giambo, Lady's-Finger, Ochro

Climate known 57 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Okra, Abelmoschus esculentus, known in some English-speaking countries as lady's fingers, is a flowering plant in the mallow family native to West Africa. Cultivated in tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate regions around the world for its edible green seed pods, okra is used in the cuisines of many countries.

Text from Wikipedia, “Okra”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Abelmoschus

Abelmoschus is a genus of about fifteen species of flowering plants in the family Malvaceae, native to tropical Africa, Asia and northern Australia. It was formerly included within Hibiscus, but is now classified as a distinct genus. The genus name derives from Arabic meaning 'father of musk' or 'source of musk' referring to the scented seeds.

Text from Wikipedia, “Abelmoschus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
(L.) Moench
Native to
Bangladesh, India, West Himalaya
Wild records
111 in range· 75 open

At a glance

Warmest month
36°C
May, mean day; nights 26 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1303mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Jul 342 mm (CHELSA)
Light
26–44DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1303 mm a year, wettest July at 342 mm, driest December at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 11.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Abelmoschus bammia (O.Targ.Tozz.) Webb; Abelmoschus esculentus subsp. praecox (Forssk.) A.Chev.; Abelmoschus esculentus var. deltoidefolius T.K.Paul & M.P.Nayar; Abelmoschus esculentus var. praecox (Forssk.) A.Chev.; Abelmoschus longifolius (Willd.) Kostel. and 19 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1068 mm of 1303 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 28.2 °C against a yearly mean of 26.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1303 mm a year, wettest July at 342 mm, driest December at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1303 mm a year at the habitat, 1068 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 342 mm, driest December at 10 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 768 mm to 2819 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 11.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 11.4 °C, the absolute minimum 8.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 8.6 °C to 22.4 °C), warmest day 35.9 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 50 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 27 °C in Jan to 36 °C in May; mean night from 15 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1303 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 107 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 8.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°50°38.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)8.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter02004006008001000mm rainDLI 26–44RH 50–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 107 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 21–3029 / 24–3232 / 30–3535 / 31–3936 / 30–4033 / 28–3731 / 27–3330 / 27–3231 / 28–3230 / 28–3328 / 26–3127 / 22–30
Night °C15 / 9–2217 / 11–2321 / 16–2424 / 21–2626 / 24–2826 / 23–2825 / 23–2625 / 22–2624 / 22–2522 / 19–2518 / 14–2415 / 10–23
Rain mm15 / 2–2715 / 1–3317 / 1–5720 / 1–12754 / 8–240194 / 61–649342 / 99–842314 / 106–596218 / 111–38487 / 22–30217 / 6–19610 / 2–52
DLI31 / 26–3737 / 31–4041 / 38–4344 / 38–4743 / 33–4734 / 26–4026 / 24–3226 / 23–3230 / 26–3432 / 29–3530 / 27–3229 / 25–34
RH %54 / 49–6053 / 45–6050 / 42–6153 / 41–6256 / 44–6560 / 53–7067 / 59–7167 / 61–7065 / 59–6960 / 52–6754 / 49–6454 / 49–62

Each figure is the median across the 107 grid cells holding the 109 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1553:5124 (12.325, 76.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 107 distinct grid cells holding the 109 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1553:5124 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 12.50_76.250, lapse-corrected +12 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 837 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBangladesh, India, West Himalaya· introduced: Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Krym, South European Russia, Ukraine, Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina, Gambia, The, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Chad, Eritrea, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Provinces, Comoros, Oman, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Assam, East Himalaya, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines, Fiji, Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Illinois, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Mexico Southwest, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Venezuela, Peru
Kew's description“annual” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker21.219, 72.796 · in the densest population, 48 records (43% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 111 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 75 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 695 km away. 872 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 111 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Abelmoschus esculentusAbelmoschus esculentusAbelmoschus esculentusAbelmoschus esculentusAbelmoschus esculentusAbelmoschus esculentusAbelmoschus esculentusAbelmoschus esculentus

Photographs: (c) Judy Gallagher, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Samantha Penman, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Maria Janeiro, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Seig, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Abelmoschus esculentus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Morphological, thermal and mechanical characterization of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) fibres as potential reinforcement in polymer composites
Igor Maria De Rosa, J. M. Kenny, Débora Puglia, Carlo Santulli (2009) · Composites Science and Technology
Green synthesis of gold nanoparticles using seed aqueous extract of Abelmoschus esculentus and its antifungal activity
Chidambaram Jayaseelan, Rajendiran Ramkumar, Abdul Abdul Rahuman, Pachiappan Perumal (2013) · Industrial Crops and Products
Effects of extraction methods on the physicochemical characteristics and biological activities of polysaccharides from okra (Abelmoschus esculentus)
Qin Yuan, Shang Lin, Yuan Fu, Xi-Rui Nie (2019) · International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Optimization of coagulation-flocculation process for treatment of industrial textile wastewater using okra (A. esculentus) mucilage as natural coagulant
Thabata Karoliny Formicoli Souza Freitas, Vinícius Machado de Oliveira, Maísa Tatiane Ferreira de Souza, Henrique César Lopes Geraldino (2015) · Industrial Crops and Products
Okra (Abelmoschus Esculentus) as a Potential Dietary Medicine with Nutraceutical Importance for Sustainable Health Applications
Abd Elmoneim O. Elkhalifa, Eyad Al-Shammari, Mohd Adnan, Jerold C. Alcantara (2021) · Molecules
Different organic manure sources and NPK fertilizer on soil chemical properties, growth, yield and quality of okra
Aruna Olasekan Adekiya, Wutem Sunny Ejue, T.M.A. Olayanju, Oluwagbenga Dunsin (2020) · Scientific Reports
Formulation of a Hybrid Nanofertilizer for Slow and Sustainable Release of Micronutrients
Chaitaly Tarafder, M. Daizy, Md Morshed Alam, Md. Ripon Ali (2020) · ACS Omega
Nutritional Quality and Health Benefits of Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus): A Review
Habtamu Fekadu Gemede (2015) · Journal of Food Processing & Technology
Antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic potential of Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench. in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats
K. Panneerselvam, V. Sabitha, S. Ramachandran, K L Naveen (2011) · Journal of Pharmacy And Bioallied Sciences
Effect of chemical treatments on the mechanical and thermal behaviour of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) fibres
Igor Maria De Rosa, J. M. Kenny, Mohd. Maniruzzaman, Md. Moniruzzaman (2010) · Composites Science and Technology
Silicon-induced alleviation of NaCl toxicity in okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) is associated with enhanced photosynthesis, osmoprotectants and antioxidant metabolism
Tahira Abbas, Rashad Mukhtar Balal, Muhammad Adnan Shahid, Muhammad Aslam Pervez (2015) · Acta Physiologiae Plantarum
Characterisation of cell wall polysaccharides from okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench)
Nipaporn Sengkhamparn, René Verhoef, Henk A. Schols, Tanaboon Sajjaanantakul (2008) · Carbohydrate Research

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 110 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.