The Correct Name!

  Ever since I was a wee tot back on the farm, a plant was called by the wrong name.  I was taught the wrong name.  I grew up calling it the wrong name.  Even as an adult, I insisted on calling it the wrong name.  I am assuming since the blooms are similar and the plants are both scratchy, a misidentification is understandable but to go on for a lifetime being misinformed, is not a good thing.  So...I am correcting myself!  I am researching more now and finding interesting facts about all sorts of things that are rather commonplace.  With all of the current technology, there is really no reason to remain ignorant.  Since my age is creeping up on me....oh, who am I kidding....since age has slammed me, Son is after me constantly to exercise the brain.  I am trying.

  Back to my plant, however.  For sixty some odd years, I have called the plant by the name Pop taught me.  Wild okra was always a bane to the farmer who expected every row to only contain the plants assigned to it.  Nothing else dared to creep in and take root.  Pop would often tell me to get the hoe and chop out the "wild okra".  I did as I was told and, along the way, learned a good bit about keeping a pristine garden.  This did not, however, teach me the proper names of some plants.  The wild okra is not an okra at all.  Yes, the blooms are so very, very similar but once you really get to examining the two, there are huge differences.  My "wild okra" is none other than a plant called Comfortroot.  It is also called Big Thicket Hibiscus or Pineland Hibiscus.  So, basically, it is a wild, native (to the Deep South) hibiscus and not an okra at all!  It turns out that okra is in the mallow family not the hibiscus.  So there you go!  Mystery solved!  

  To be truthful, here, I never enjoyed chopping out the plants, in the first place.  I did since Pop wanted clean rows but, in my gardens, I allow wild plants to grow alongside of the others.  Morning glories intertwine with the beans so Comfortroot can take up residence next to the squash...who cares?  The blooms make the garden pretty!  Comfortroot usually grows well in creek beds and marshes but does equally well in drier places.  It can get up to five feet tall and about as wide so give it plenty of room.  It propagates well by seeds harvested from wild plants.  

  Now that I can proudly identify the plant, I figure it deserves a little better care.  This one was found in the woods but there are several in the garden plots.  Pop is probably looking down at me and shaking his head...morning glories and "wild okra"....in the garden, no less!  Sorry, Pop!