What cucumber flies?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
October 3, 2002
The gourd family, Cucurbitaceae, contains five hundred species scattered among 114 genera. The plants range from the vegetable sponge (loofah) to melons, squash, pumpkins, and cucumbers. A few cucurbits are shrubby, most are trailing vines with tendrils for support. Only one of the vining cucurbits lacks tendrils, the squirting cucumber (Ecballium elaterium (L.) A. Richard).
The squirting cucumber is native to the Mediterranean area. It is monoecious bearing staminate (male) flowers in racemose clusters and pistillate (female) flowers singly. The cucumber-like fruit is an oblong berry with an attitude.
As the seeds mature, the fruit fills with liquid. When fully ripe, the fruit contains so much hydrostatic pressure that it detaches from the pedicel and flies like a rocket streaming liquid and seeds behind. David Attenborough (The Private Life of Plants, 1995) reports the cucumber "...shoots through the air for as far as twenty feet."
John Gerard (The Herbal, 1633 ed.) grew a few in his garden and cautioned about picking the cucumbers, "...oftentimes [it] striketh so hard against those that touch it (especially if it chance to hit against the face) that the place smarteth long after: whereupon of some it hath been called Noli me tangere, Touch me not."
The Dipartimento di Botanica, Università di Catania has two excellent photographs of the squirting cucumber. To view the photographs, click on the link:
http://www.dipbot.unict.it/orto/0522-1.html
Suggested Reading:
Why must the tumbleweed tumble? Weird Plants - June 27, 2002
How did glassworts change personal hygiene? Plants that Changed History - June 25, 2002
How were plants used to make glass? Plants that Changed History - June 18, 2002
Why did Mennonites plant sunflowers? Plants that Changed History - May 13, 2003
What is the mystery of the soybean? Weird Plants - October 4, 2001
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