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Gourd Musical Instruments
Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly '' Cucurbita'' and '' Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. Many gourds have large, bulbous bodies and long necks, such as Dipper Gourds, many variations of Bottle Gourd and caveman club gourds. One of the earliest domesticated types of plants, subspecies of the bottle gourd, '' Lagenaria siceraria'', have been discovered in archaeological sites dating from as early as 13,000 BC. Gourds have had numerous uses throughout history, including as tools, musical instruments, objects of art, film, and food. Terminology ''Gourd'' is occasionally used to describe crop plants in the family Cucurbitaceae, like pumpkins, cucumbers, squash, luffa, and melons. More specifically, ''gourd'' refers to the fruits of plants in the two Cucurbitaceae genera '' Lagenaria'' and '' Cucurbita'', or also to their hollow, dried-ou ...
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Malabar Gourd
''Cucurbita ficifolia'' is a species of squash, grown for its edible seeds, fruit, and greens. It has common names including black seed squash, chilacayote, cidra, fig-leaf gourd, and Malabar gourd. Compared to other domesticated species in its genus, investigators have noted that samples of ''C. ficifolia'' from throughout its range are relatively similar to one other in morphology and genetic composition. Variations do occur in fruit and seed color, some isozymes, and photoperiod sensitivity. This species is grown widely from Argentina and Chile to Mexico. It is also cultivated in regions of the world including India, Japan, Korea, China, the Philippines, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Angola. No named agricultural cultivars have been recognized. Research suggests that ''C. ficifolia'' represents an earlier evolutionary branch than the other major cultivated ''Cucurbita'' species, but biosystematic investigations have established that ''C. ficifolia'' is not as distinc ...
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Citrullus Colocynthis
''Citrullus colocynthis'', with many common names including Abu Jahl's melon, (native name in Turkey) colocynth, bitter apple, bitter cucumber, egusi, vine of Sodom, or wild gourd, is a poisonous desert viny plant native to the Mediterranean Basin and West Asia, especially the Levant, Turkey (especially in regions such as İzmir), and Nubia. It resembles a common watermelon vine but bears small, hard fruits with a bitter pulp. The plant contains cytotoxic cucurbitacins and is thus unsafe to use as an herbal medicine. It originally bore the scientific name ''Colocynthis citrullus''. Description The vine ranges from in length. Roots and stems The roots are large, fleshy, and perennial, leading to a high survival rate due to the long tap root. The vine-like stems spread in all directions for a few meters looking for something over which to climb. If present, shrubs and herbs are preferred and climbed by means of auxiliary branching tendrils. Leaves Very similar to wa ...
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PNAS
''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Sciences, published since 1915, and publishes original research, scientific reviews, commentaries, and letters. According to '' Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2022 impact factor of 9.4. ''PNAS'' is the second most cited scientific journal, with more than 1.9 million cumulative citations from 2008 to 2018. In the past, ''PNAS'' has been described variously as "prestigious", "sedate", "renowned" and "high impact". ''PNAS'' is a delayed open-access journal, with an embargo period of six months that can be bypassed for an author fee ( hybrid open access). Since September 2017, open access articles are published under a Creative Commons license. Since January 2019, ''PNAS'' has been online-only, although print issues are avail ...
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Before Present
Before Present (BP) or "years before present (YBP)" is a time scale used mainly in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events occurred relative to the origin of practical radiocarbon dating in the 1950s. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use 1January 1950 as the commencement date (epoch) of the age scale, with 1950 being labelled as the "standard year". The abbreviation "BP" has been interpreted retrospectively as "Before Physics", which refers to the time before nuclear weapons testing artificially altered the proportion of the carbon isotopes in the atmosphere, which scientists must account for when using radiocarbon dating for dates of origin that may fall after this year. In a convention that is not always observed, many sources restrict the use of BP dates to those produced with radiocarbon dating; the alternative notation "RCYBP" stands for the explicit "radio carbon years before present". Usage The BP scale is s ...
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Science (journal)
''Science'' is the peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and one of the world's top academic journals. It was first published in 1880, is currently circulated weekly and has a subscriber base of around 130,000. Because institutional subscriptions and online access serve a larger audience, its estimated readership is over 400,000 people. ''Science'' is based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a second office in Cambridge, UK. Contents The major focus of the journal is publishing important original scientific research and research reviews, but ''Science'' also publishes science-related news, opinions on science policy and other matters of interest to scientists and others who are concerned with the wide implications of science and technology. Unlike most scientific journals, which focus on a specific field, ''Science'' and its rival ''Nature (journal), Nature'' cover the full range of List of academ ...
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Bitter Melon
''Momordica charantia'' (commonly called bitter melon, cerassee, goya, bitter apple, bitter gourd, bitter squash, balsam-pear, karela, karavila and many more #Uses, names listed below) is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean for its edible fruit. Its many variety (botany), varieties differ substantially in the shape and bitterness of the fruit. Bitter melon originated in Africa, where it was a dry-season staple food of ǃKung people, ǃKung hunter-gatherers. Wild or semi-domesticated variants spread across Asia in prehistory, and it was likely fully domesticated in Southeast Asia. It is widely used in the cuisines of East Asian cuisine, East Asia, South Asian cuisine, South Asia, and Southeast Asian cuisine, Southeast Asia. Description This herbaceous, tendril-bearing vine grows up to in length. It bears simple, Phyllotaxis, alternate leaves across, with three to seven deeply separated lobes. Each plan ...
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Buffalo Gourd
Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the northeastern United States Buffalo or buffaloes may also refer to: Animals * Bubalina, a subtribe of the tribe Bovini within the subfamily Bovinae **African buffalo or Cape Buffalo (''Syncerus caffer'') ** ''Bubalus'', a genus of bovines including various water buffalo species ***Wild water buffalo (''Bubalus arnee'') *** Water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis'') **** Buffalo meat, the meat of the water buffalo **** Italian Mediterranean buffalo, a breed of water buffalo *** Anoa *** Tamaraw (''Bubalus mindorensis'') ***'' Bubalus murrensis'', an extinct species of water buffalo that occupied riverine habitats in Europe in the Pleistocene * Bison, large, even-toed ungulates in the genus ''Bison'' within the subfamily Bovinae **American bison ...
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Hedgehog Gourd
''Cucumis dipsaceus'', also known as Arabian cucumber or hedgehog cucumber, is an annual climbing herb that can be found in tropical and arid locations. The plant is native to eastern Africa, first found in Sudan, southern Egypt, and Ethiopia. The developed fruits of the plant change from green to yellow and contain many seeds. The hairs that cover the oblong fruits nickname this species the “hedgehog cucumber”. ''C. dipsaceus'' has several usages, as fodder, medicine, and human consumption. The cucumber is normally collected in the wild, but has also been domesticated. The young shoots and leaves of the plant are traditionally cooked with groundnut paste, and with coconut milk when available. The fruit of the plant is used medicinally as an analgesic. ''C. dipsaceus'' has become invasive all across the Americas. This includes islands in Hawaii, several states in the U.S. and islands in South America as well. There are no known methods of control. Distribution ''Cucumis dip ...
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Momordica Dioica
''Momordica dioica'', commonly known as spiny gourd or spine gourd or teasle gourd and also known as bristly balsam pear, is a species of flowering plant in the Cucurbitaceae/gourd family. It is propagated by underground tubers. It has small leaves, small yellow flowers, it has small, dark green, round or oval fruits. It is dioecious, which means that it has distinct male and female individual organisms, hence its name.T. R. Gopalakrishnan, Uses Momordica dioica is used as a vegetable in all regions of India and in South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio .... It has commercial importance and is exported and used locally. The fruits are cooked with spices, or fried and sometimes eaten with meat or fish. Gallery Spiny gourd (Momordica dioica).jpg, Halves and cro ...
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Snake Gourd
''Trichosanthes cucumerina'' is a tropical or subtropical vine. Its variety ''T. cucumerina'' var. ''anguina'' raised for its strikingly long fruit. In Asia, it is eaten immature as a vegetable much like the summer squash and in Africa, the reddish pulp of mature snake gourd is used as an economical substitute for tomato. Common names for the cultivated variety include snake gourd, serpent gourd, chichinda padwal and Snake Tomato. ''Trichosanthes cucumerina'' is found in the wild across much of South and Southeast Asia, including India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar(Burma) and southern China (Guangxi and Yunnan). It is also regarded as native in northern Australia. and naturalized in Florida, parts of Africa and on various islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Formerly, the cultivated form was considered a distinct species, ''T. anguina'', but it is now generally regarded as conspecific with the wild populations, as they freely interb ...
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Wax Gourd
''Benincasa hispida'', the wax gourd, also called ash gourd, white gourd, winter gourd, winter melon, tallow gourd, ash pumpkin, Chinese preserving melon, is a vine grown for its very large fruit, eaten as a vegetable when mature. It is native to South and Southeast Asia. The wax gourd is widely grown throughout Asia, including Java and Japan, the places where it is thought to have originated. One variety of the plant, called ''chi qua'' (''Benincasa hispida'' var. ''chieh-qua''), is commonly used in Asian cuisine. Etymology The name "winter melon" that is sometimes given to this plant is based on the Chinese name (); however, the character () can also mean "gourd" or "squash". It is likely that the name "melon" is given because this gourd is sometimes candied or made into a sweet tea. The name "wax gourd" comes from the wax coating in the fruit's skin. Description The plant grows thick vines with coarse and hairy stems. It has large, rough leaves with a width bet ...
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