Wild Cucumber

 Wild cucumber

Wild cucumber plant is a relative of cucumbers that we eat, they both belong to the same family (Cucurbitaceae). Wild cucumber is not edible though. The plant is a creeper and it can be most often seen twining around other trees or around fences. It grows both in Southern and Northern California. Another name for this plant, manroot refers to its gigantic root that is supposed to be as big as a man. I personally have not seen the root of this plant so I can't tell for sure.

Wild cucumber flowers

The white flowers are actually quite small. The plant is very easy to recognize. The leaves are lobed. But the most interesting feature of this plant is its fruit.

Fresh fruit of wild cucumber

Fresh fruit is soft and green, covered with spikes. If you cut it, you'll find four chambers inside, each of which contains one or two large seeds.

Wild cucumber seed

Here is the dry fruit cut open:

Dry fruit of wild cucumber with empty seed chambers

So when the weather gets really hot, the fruit changes from green to tan and feels very dry. The fruit eventually cracks and the seeds are scattered on the ground.

Hanging dry wild cucumber fruit that cracked open. 

Wild cucumber belong to the genus Marah, which is the same word that is used in the Bible and means "bitter" referring to bitter waters in Exodus. Naomi in the Book of Ruth also changes her name to Marah for a while to indicate bitter life that she had. The marah in wild cucumbers refers to extreme bitterness of its roots or tubers. The plant belongs to the gourd family.