''Trichosanthes cucumerina'' is a

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 ...

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones immediately to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Ge ...

vine A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...

. Its variety ''T. cucumerina'' var. ''anguina'' raised for its strikingly long

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

. In

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, it is eaten immature as a

vegetable Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including edible flower, flo ...

much like the summer squash and in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, the reddish pulp of mature snake gourd is used as an economical substitute for

tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

. 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 South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

, including

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

(

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

) and southern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(

Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...

and

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

).Flora of China v 19 p 38, ''Trichosanthes cucumerina''
/ref> It is also regarded as native in northern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. and naturalized in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, parts of

and on various islands in the Indian and

Pacific Oceans The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

.Prota 2, Vegetables/Légumes, ''Trichosanthes cucumerina'' L.
/ref> Formerly, the cultivated form was considered a distinct species, ''T. anguina'', but it is now generally regarded as

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

with the wild populations, as they freely interbreed: * ''Trichosanthes cucumerina'' var. ''anguina'' (L.) Haines – cultivated variant * ''Trichosanthes cucumerina'' var. ''cucumerina'' – wild variant

Description

''Trichosanthes cucumerina'' is a

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system comparable with gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy, and contras ...

annual vine climbing by means of

tendrils In botany, a tendril is a specialized stem, leaf or 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 are many plants that have tendr ...

. Leaves are palmately lobed, up to 25 cm long. Flowers are unisexual, white, opening at night, with long branching hairs on the margins of the petals. These hairs are curled up in the daytime when the flower is closed, but unfurl at night to form a delicate lacy display (see photos in gallery below). Fruits can be up to 200 cm long, deep red at maturity, hanging below the vine. The related Japanese snake gourd ('' Trichosanthes pilosa,'' sometimes called ''T. ovigera'' or ''T. cucumeroides''), very similar in vegetative morphology, but the fruit of ''T. pilosa'' is round to egg-shaped, only about 7 cm long.

Cultivation

The fruit can be induced to grow straight by tying a weight to the end.

Uses

Culinary

The common name "snake gourd" refers to the narrow, twisted, elongated fruit. The soft-skinned immature fruit can reach up to in length. It is soft, bland, somewhat

mucilaginous Mucilage is a thick gluey substance produced by nearly all plants and some microorganisms. These microorganisms include protists which use it for their locomotion, with the direction of their movement always opposite to that of the secretion of ...

flesh is similar to that of the

luffa ''Luffa'' is a genus of tropical and subtropical vines in the pumpkin, squash and gourd family (Cucurbitaceae). In everyday non-technical usage, the luffa, also spelled loofah or less frequently loofa, usually refers to the fruits of the speci ...

and the

calabash Calabash (; ''Lagenaria siceraria''), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, New Guinea butter bean, Tasmania bean, and opo squash, is a vine grown for its fruit. It can be either harvest ...

. It is popular in the cuisines of

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 ...

and

and is now grown in some home gardens in Africa. The primary culinary use of snake gourds is in curries and stews. In the different regions of

, it's quite common and is known by various names like: *

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

- ''chechenḍa'' / ''chichinḍa'' (चेचेण्डा / चिचिण्डा) * Punjabi- ''gala tori'' (ਗਲਾ ਤੋਰੀ) * Garhwali-''chachenḍa'' (चचेंण्डा) * Gujarati- ''panḍoḷnu'' (પંડોળું) * Nepali- ''chichinno'' (चिचिन्नो) *

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

- ''paḍwaḷ'' (पडवळ) *

Konkani __NOTOC__ Konkani may refer to: Language * Konkani language is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Konkan region of India. * Konkani alphabets, different scripts used to write the language **Konkani in the Roman script, one of the scripts used to ...

- ''poḍḍaḷe'' (पोड्डळे) * Bengali- ''chichinga'' (চিচিঙ্গা) * Odia- ''chhachindra'' (ଛଚିନ୍ଦ୍ରା) * Assamese- ''dhunduli'' (ধুন্দুলি) *

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

- ''puḍalangai'' (புடலங்காய) *

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

- ''paḍavalkai'' (ಪಡವಲಕಾಯಿ) * Telugu- ''poṭlakaya'' (పొట్లకాయ) *

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

- ''paḍavalanga'' (പടവലങ്ങ) * Tulu- ''paṭla kay'' (ಪಟ್ಲ ಕಾಯ್) * Meitei- ''lin manbi'' (ꯂꯤꯟ ꯃꯥꯅꯕꯤ) * Sinhala- ''pathola'' (පතෝල) With some cultivars, the immature fruit has an unpleasant odor and a slightly bitter taste, both of which disappear in cooking. The fruit becomes too bitter to eat as it reaches maturity, but it does contain a reddish pulp that is used in Africa as a substitute for tomatoes.Kew Gardens Millennium Seed Bank, the weird and wonderful snake gourd
The shoots,

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 and

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are also eaten as greens.

Other

The dried gourds were traditionally used as a

soap Soap is a salt (chemistry), salt of a fatty acid (sometimes other carboxylic acids) used for cleaning and lubricating products as well as other applications. In a domestic setting, soaps, specifically "toilet soaps", are surfactants usually u ...

substitute in some parts of Asia.

Gallery

File:Trichosanthes cucumerina flower.jpg, The lace-like flower of ''T. cucumerina'' opens only after dark. Here, it is shown almost completely unfurled. File:Trichosanthes cucumerina flower 1.jpg, In the process of unfurling its fimbriate petals. File:Trichosanthes cucumerina (snake gourd).jpg, An edible immature snake gourd. File:ヘビウリの実.jpg, It twists and becomes orange-red while elongated and ripened. File:Thichosanthes cucumerina, the snake gourds, variable fruit shapes and colors as seen in cultivation.jpg, Different maturity stages and shapes as seen in cultivation. File:The flower of a type of bitter guard in hand.JPG, Flower and flower buds. File:Snake gourd semilooper anadevidia peponis larvae.JPG, Snake gourd semilooper ''Anadevidia peponis'' larva, a major pest of ''T. cucumerina'' File:Snake gourd freshly harvested.jpg, Freshly harvested snake gourd from India.

Notes

References

External links

Trichosanthes cucumerina Linn. improves glucose tolerance and tissue glycogen in non insulin dependent diabetes mellitus induced rats
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1323731 cucumerina Fruit vegetables Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora of the Indian subcontinent Flora of Myanmar Flora of Malesia Flora of China Flora of Yunnan Flora of Guangxi Flora of Africa Rosids of Western Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Edible plants