#burcucumber

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Sunday 13 November 2022

These are the distinctive fruit of Cucumis anguria (bur cucumber, gooseberry gourd, prickly-fruited gherkin, West Indian gherkin) which is native to southern Africa but is now cultivated across tropical and subtropical regions. Care has to be taken as the plant can easily self-seed and become a dominant weed.

Jill Raggett

[bs-botany]

Even halfway decent plant people make mistakes (yes, I’m referring to myself!). I used chicken coop compost this year in the garden (from the coops here on the farm), and I was excited to discover all manner of volunteer plants. Most of them were pumpkins, which I have allowed to grow. One of the volunteers, though, was this monster. It grew, and grew, and GREW until it had taken over most of my garden. It happened almost overnight, and I was dismayed to discover all this plant seemed to want to do was grow and not produce any fruit of any sort. Then today it started to produce flowers. You can imagine my dismay when I discovered that it was bur-cucumber. With all the animals we have, the last things we need are more burs stuck in their fur. I just spent the evening disentangling this beast from my garden, freeing my other, veggie producing plants (and one of our turkeys!) from its grasp (that’s the last photo - the pile of all the vines I pulled out!). Next time around I’m not going to be so accommodating to volunteers popping up in the garden! ————————————— #vine #garden #burcucumber #burs #veggies #turkey #pumpkins #volunteers #volunteerplants https://www.instagram.com/p/CEA0QiZgygH/?igshid=dko595756uga

[hisj]

_Paratrechina flavipes_ #Formicinae #Paratrechina #ant #アメイロアリ _Sicyos angulatus_ #burcucumber #starcucumber female flowers #アレチウリ 雌花

[seedkeeping]

Bur Gherkin (Cucumis anguria) is indigenous to the African continent, and is an important ingredient in the Brazilian meat and veggie stew called #cozido. It is similar to its cousin the cucumber (Cucumis sativus). #cucumisanguria #burgherkin #burcucumber #roughwoodseedcollection #cucumis #cucurbitaceae #cucurbit #seedsaving #seedkeeping