Luffa Aegyptiaca

The luffa sponge, also known as loofah, vegetable sponge or running okra is a quick-growing climbing plant producing fascinating fruits. Normally these rather resemble long, ridged cucumbers, slightly fatter at one end, and growing to 30 to 40 centimetres long, but we offer the rarer smooth-skinned variety. Whilst the young fruits are edible, the mature ones can be boiled or dried to remove the flesh, revealing the intricate network of tough fibres that make it so useful in the bath! Grown up fences or trellis in a warm sheltered site or in a greenhouse they fruit in around 16 weeks from planting out.