Okra

Even if you find the mucilaginous material (slime to its enemies) exuded by the ridged pods of okra repulsive, you cannot help but be seduced by the mazy thicket of its nomenclature and its botanical relatives. The traditional and only partially obsolete Linnaean name is Abelmoschus esculentus, literally the edible “father of musk.” This Saddamian formulation probably came about because the hibiscus-like flowers of the okra plant smelled to some early arabophone botanizer like the true musk he had met at table. The resemblance to hibiscus blooms is not superficial but fundamental. Indeed, the revised standard name for okra is now Hibiscus esculentus, which puts it in the same genus as all those gloriously blooming plants arranged in such floral splendor in the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Fla.—until feral iguanas ate them.