''Sicana odorifera'' is a large, herbaceous perennial vine native to
tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
, grown as an ornamental plant and for its sweet edible fruit. English names include cassabanana or casbanan, sikana, puttigel and musk cucumber.
The fast-growing, fleshy vine can reach or more in height, climbing with four-part adhesive
tendril
In botany, a tendril is a specialized Plant stem, stem, leaf or Petiole (botany), petiole with a thread-like shape used by climbing plants for support and attachment, as well as cellular invasion by parasitic plants such as ''Cuscuta''. There ar ...
s. The large, hairy, palmately lobed leaves grow to in width.
The fruit is large, up to long, with skin of variable color. The fruit has a delicious,
melon
A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. It can also specifically refer to ''Cucumis melo'', commonly known as the "true melon" or simply "melon". The term "melon" can apply to both the p ...
-like taste when it is ripe, which needs high temperatures to ripen. The sweet, aromatic, yellow-to-orange flesh of the mature fruit is eaten raw or made into
preserves
Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits whose main preserving agent is sugar and sometimes acid, often stored in glass jars and used as a condiment or spread.
There are many varieties of fruit preserves globally, distinguished by the meth ...
. The immature fruit can be cooked as a vegetable.
Cultivation
It is propagated by seeds. It is grown widely in the warm parts of Latin America, as well as by the
Cajun people
The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the US state of Louisiana and surrounding Gulf Coast states.
Whil ...
of the
Southern United States
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...
. It needs good drainage to grow well, and does well on an acidic mix of sand (or
perlite
Perlite is an amorphous volcanic glass that has a relatively high water content, typically formed by the Hydrate, hydration of obsidian. It occurs naturally and has the unusual property of greatly expanding when heated sufficiently. It is an indu ...
) and rich compost.
References
External links
Information from ''Fruits of Warm Climates''
Cucurbiteae
Flora of Southern America
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