The Lady’s Finger is a vegetable that belongs to the family of Mallows. Malvaceae of the Mallows is a family of flowers belonging to the kingdom of Plantae with 244 Genres and over 4225 species. The ladyfinger is a vegetable that can be seen in all houses in India because of its taste and its health benefits. Let us move on with the details about Lady’s Finger.
Botanical name: Abelmoschus esculentus
Order : Malvales
Family : Malvaceae
Genus : Abelmoschus
Species : A. esculentus
Kingdom : Plantae
The Lady’s finger plant is a flowering plant in which the vegetable will replace the place of the flower. The ladyfinger vegetable will look dark green when it is fully ripped. The vegetable has a head kind of looks like a helmet and it has a pointy tail in the bottom. A ladyfinger grows around 8 to 9 cm. The largest grown ladyfinger in the world is about 41.91cm in length which took place in the Limca book of records, by Sudhish Kumar.
The soil to grow the plant should have a Ph range of 6.5 to 7.0. The ladyfinger is a warm crop and the coldness may ruin the vegetable. The plant well grows under a temperature of 25 to 35 degrees. The seeds inside the vegetable are again used for planting it. The seed should be soaked in water for 3 days. The seed takes 5 to 6 days for the Germination process. The vegetable takes a time of 55 to 65 days to mature.
There are many types of varieties in ladyfinger. They are differed by size, structure, pod count, and color. Let’s see some of the different types of ladyfinger.
- Baby Bubba Hybrid: These plants are named as per their needs. They are comfortable growing in small containers and home gardens. The plant is 3 to 4 feet tall and has a diameter of 24 inches. This takes 53 days to mature, this makes the cultivator plan accordingly for bigger production.
- Blondy: These seeds are open-pollinated. They are small in size with spineless cor and it takes around 50 days to mature.
- Burgundy: These plants reach up to 5 feet in height in 48-inch diameter. The plant has a good leaf with a burgundy-colored stem and 6 to 8-inch fruit. The color gets pale while cooking.
- Cow Horn: This plant takes a long time of 90 days, that grows a length of 5 to 7inches. They grow in a curvy position and their pods too.
- Silver queen: This plant loves the heat and they are vulnerable to cold. This plan takes 80 days to mature. They have a silver color on the top of the vegetable and go green. They give beige-colored pods which grow to 6 inches in height.
These are some of the varieties that farmer grows as per the season.
Medicinal uses:
The Ladyfinger has medical purposes that are useful for humans. Let us see the properties of ladyfinger.
- The ladyfinger has a high fiber content.
- It has the vitamins like A, and B.
- It has Minerals, Zinc, and calcium that a person needs.
- The high fiber helps the digestion to improve by preventing less food consumption and regular bowel moments.
- It has soluble fibers which are good for diabetic patients.
- It helps to reduce the absorption of bad cholesterol and gives good care to the heart.
- Research has shown that ladyfinger has high oxidants than other vegetables. Antioxidants prevent the dames of cells in the body. So it helps to fight cancer.
- The high amount of vitamin K, folate, and iron in ladyfinger promotes healthy blood and prevents Anemia.
- Folate and folic acid are important n the role of conception for women and the development of the fetus. And also gives proper neurological development to the babies.
- Ladyfinger helps to improve immunity.
- The ladyfinger helps to keep the digestive system clean. This leads to the prevention of Colon cancer.
Some people like to eat it raw. Some boiled. But kids don’t like them, by frying them in the oil makes it so crunchy and spicy that are like by the kids. This makes the kids eat tasty and healthy food.