''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
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 ...
grown for its very large 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 ...
, eaten 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 ...
when mature.
It is native to 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 ...
. The wax gourd is widely grown throughout 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 ...
, including Java
Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
and Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, the places where it is thought to have originated.[
One variety of the plant, called '']chi qua
''Chi qua'' is the fruit of ''Benincasa hispida'' var. ''chieh-qua'', a Variety (botany), variety of the wax gourd. The fruit is a staple of the Chinese cuisine, Chinese diet.
Etymology
The fruit is commonly referred to in Chinese as ''chi qu ...
'' (''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
Character or Characters may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
* ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to Theoph ...
() 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
Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to give lo ...
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 between long.
In early summer from June to September, golden yellow flowers form in the leaf axils.
Fruit
After they are fertilized, they bear obloid fruits 50–60 cm long by 10–25 cm wide; young fruits are covered with soft fuzzy hairs which eventually disappear and develop a waxy coating that gives the fruit a long shelf life
Shelf life is the length of time that a commodity may be stored without becoming unfit for use, consumption, or sale. In other words, it might refer to whether a commodity should no longer be on a pantry shelf (unfit for use), or no longer on a s ...
of up to a year.
The melon may grow as large as 80 cm in length. The fruit has thick flesh that is sweet, crisp and juicy; it has white or yellow seeds.
Cultivation
It is grown in well-drained loam
Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–si ...
and sandy soils in warm, mild climates, and will not tolerate frosts. It is grown in riverbeds or furrows
A plough or ( US) plow (both pronounced ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but modern ploughs are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, ...
, and needs constant irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...
during the growing season.[
]
Uses
Culinary
The wax gourd can be stored for many months, much like winter squash
Winter squash is an annual fruit representing several squash species within the genus '' Cucurbita''. Late-growing, less symmetrical, odd-shaped, rough or warty varieties, small to medium in size, but with long-keeping qualities and hard rinds, ...
. Ash gourds of the Indian subcontinent have a white coating with a rough texture (hence the name ash gourd). Southeast Asian varieties have a smooth waxy texture. It is one of the few vegetables available during winter in areas of deciduous
In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...
vegetation
Vegetation is an assemblage of plants and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular Taxon, taxa, life forms, structure, Spatial ecology, spatial extent, or any other specific Botany, botanic ...
. In India, the wax gourd is recognized for its medicinal properties in the Ayurvedic system of medicine.[ It also has significance in spiritual traditions of ]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 ...
and Yoga
Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...
, where it is identified as a great source of prana
In yoga, Ayurveda, and Indian martial arts, prana (, ; the Sanskrit word for breath, " life force", or "vital principle") permeates reality on all levels including inanimate objects. In Hindu literature, prāṇa is sometimes described as origin ...
.
In Cambodia
Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...
, it is known as ''tralach'' (), and used in soup and stews in Cambodian cuisine
Cambodian cuisine is the national cuisine of Cambodia. It reflects the varied culinary traditions of different ethnic groups in Cambodia, central of which is Khmer cuisine (, ), the nearly-two-thousand-year-old culinary tradition of the Khmer pe ...
. It is commonly used to make '' samlor tralach'', which is winter gourd and pork soup, or stuffed pork in the gourd.
In Chinese cuisine, the gourds are used in stir fries or combined with pork or pork/beef bones to make winter gourd soup, often served in the scooped out gourd, carved by scraping off the waxy coating. It is also chopped and candied
Candied fruit, also known as glacé fruit, is whole fruit, smaller pieces of fruit, or pieces of peel, placed in heated sugar syrup, which absorbs the moisture from within the fruit and eventually preserves it. Depending on the size and type o ...
as wintermelon candy (dōng guā táng), commonly eaten at New Year festivals, or as filling for Sweetheart cake
A sweetheart cake or wife cake or marriage pie is a traditional Chinese cake with a thin crust of flaky pastry, made with a filling of winter melon, almond paste, and sesame, and spiced with five spice powder.
"Wife cake" is the translation of ...
(lǎopó bǐng). It has also been used as the base filling in Chinese and Taiwanese mooncake
A mooncake () is a Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節). The festival is primarily about the harvest while a legend connects it to moon watching, and mooncakes are regarded as a delicacy. ...
s for the Moon Festival.
In Vietnamese cuisine
Vietnamese cuisine encompasses the foods and beverages originated from Vietnam. Meals feature a combination of five fundamental tastes (): sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and Piquant, spicy. The distinctive nature of each dish reflects one or more ...
, it is called ''bí đao'', and is usually used to make soup or stew. When cooked with pork short ribs, the resulting soup is traditionally thought to help produce more milk for breastfeeding mothers.
In the Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
, it is candied (referred to plainly as ''kundol'') and is used as a pastry filling for hopia. It is also an ingredient in some savory soups (''sabaw'') and stir-fries (''guisado'').
In Indian cuisine it is traditionally used to prepare a wide variety of dishes. In northern India it is used to prepare a candy called ''petha
Petha (Hindi: पेठा pronounced ) is a translucent soft candy from the Indian subcontinent made from ash gourd or white pumpkin. It is simply called ''petha'' in Hindi and Urdu.T. R. Gopalakrishnan
Preparation
Ash gourds, commonly refe ...
''. In South Indian cuisine
South Indian cuisine includes the cuisines of the five South India, southern states of India—Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana—and the union territories of Lakshadweep, and Puducherry (union territory), Pondicherr ...
, it is traditionally used to make a variety of curries
Curry is a dish with a sauce or gravy seasoned with spices, mainly derived from the interchange of Indian cuisine with European taste in food, starting with the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch and British, and then thoroughly internation ...
, including sāmbār and a stew ('' mōr kuḻambu'', made with a yogurt
Yogurt (; , from , ; also spelled yoghurt, yogourt or yoghourt) is a food produced by bacterial Fermentation (food), fermentation of milk. Fermentation of sugars in the milk by these bacteria produces lactic acid, which acts on milk protein to ...
base. The juice of the raw ash gourd (Maipawl or Khar) is used by the Mizo community and indigenous Assamese ethnicities of North-East India as a natural remedy to treat mild to severe dysentery. In north India, particularly in the middle Himalayas, it is paired with pulses such as moong
The mung bean or green gram (''Vigna radiata'') is a plant species in the Fabaceae, legume family.Brief Introduction of Mung Bean. Vigna Radiata Extract Green Mung Bean Extract Powder Phaseolus aureus Roxb Vigna radiata L R Wilczek. MDidea-E ...
which, when crushed, along with winter gourd, make a dish locally called '' bori''. When dried in sunlight it becomes somewhat hard and is used in curry dishes and eaten with rice or chapati
Chapati (alternatively spelled chapathi; pronounced as IAST: ), also known as ''roti'', ''rooti'', ''rotee'', ''rotli'', '' rotta'', ''safati'', ''shabaati'', ''phulka'', ''chapo'' (in East Africa), ''sada roti'' (in the Caribbean), ''poli'' (i ...
. This practice is especially prevalent in the Himalayas due to the long shelf life of the resulting product.
In western Bihar as well as eastern Uttar Pradesh, it is called ''bhathua'' (भथुआ). In Sri Lanka, it is called ''puhul'' (පුහුල්) and ''alu puhul'' (අළු පුහුල්). In Andhra Pradesh, it is called Boodida Gummadikaya (బూడిద గుమ్మడికాయ) (Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India
** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language.
* Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...
). It is used to make stews, stir fries and vadialu. Vadialu are made by chopping the gourd in small pieces and mixing with ground urad beans and spices, then sun-drying. To eat, vadialu are deep fried in oil and eaten as an accompaniment to rice and sambar or lentil stews.
It is known as Kohalaa (कोहळा) in the Marathi language
Marathi (; , 𑘦𑘨𑘰𑘙𑘲, , ) is a Classical languages of India, classical Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language predominantly spoken by Marathi people in the Indian state of Maharashtra and is also spoken in Goa, and parts of Guj ...
. Kohala is used to prepare a sweet dish called Kohalyachi Vadee, a kind of Barfi
Barfi or ''burfi'' is a milk-based sweet from the Indian subcontinent with a fudge-like consistency. Its name comes from the Persian and Urdu word (''barf'') for snow. ''Barfi'' is consumed throughout India, Bangladesh and Pakistan and is es ...
. It is also used to make Sambar.
In Gujarat
Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...
, it is called kolu (કોળુ).
In Bengal
Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...
, it is called "ChaalKumro" (চালকুমড়ো ). There are various dished made with it, viz., ChalKumro’r Bora, Chalkumro ghonto, Chalkumror dudh curry, with mung dal, etc.
In Odisha it is called (ପାଣି କଖାରୁ), it is used in various types of recipe all over Odisha. It is the main ingredient to prepare a very tasty candy like food (ବଡ଼ି) for curry or as a supplement mainly with watered rice.
In 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 ...
, where it is called Kubhindo, it is cooked as a vegetable when young, but the ripe gourds are usually made into preserves or crystallized candy known as "murabba" or "petha".
Occasionally, it is used to produce a fruit drink with a distinctive taste. It is usually sweetened with caramelized sugar. In Southeast Asia, the drink is marketed as wax gourd tea or wax gourd punch.
The shoot
Shoot most commonly refers to:
* Shoot (botany), an immature plant or portion of a plant
* Shooting, the firing of projectile weapons
* Photo shoot, a photography session; an event wherein a photographer takes photographs
Shoot may also refer t ...
s, 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, ...
of the plant may also be eaten as greens.
Other purposes
The ash gourd is also used by Hindus as a sacrificial offering in lieu of animal sacrifice. The gourd is marked with vermillion
Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color family and pigment most often used between antiquity and the 19th century from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide). It is synonymous with red orange, which often takes a modern ...
and split in two with a sword.
In Kerala
Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...
, the plant is called കുമ്പളം ''kumbalam'' and the fruit is called കുമ്പളങ്ങ ''kumbalanga'' or കൂശ്മാണ്ടം ''kooshmandam''. It is traditionally used to offer 'Guruthi' (ഗുരുതി) instead of 'Kuruti' (കുരുതി) among Malayali Brahmins
Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...
. Thus, instead of offering someone's life in the pyre, an ash gourd is cut into two as a symbolic performance in lieu of human sacrifice.
In Karnataka
Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...
, the ash gourd is known as Boodu Kumbalakaayi (ಬೂದು ಕುಂಬಳಕಾಯಿ) (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 ...
) and Boldu Kumbda in Tulu, and is used to prepare dishes like Kodel ( Sambhar), Ale bajji, Kashi Halwa and chutney.
It is widely used during Dasara and other festivities while performing pooje.
Its fruit was often dried as containers to store infused coconut oil among Polynesians
Polynesians are an ethnolinguistic group comprising closely related ethnic groups native to Polynesia, which encompasses the islands within the Polynesian Triangle in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Sout ...
(known as ''fa''(''n'')''gu'' or ''hue ʻaroro'' – latter not to be confused with the other ''hue
In color theory, hue is one of the properties (called color appearance parameters) of a color, defined in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that are described as ...
'' gourd).
2020 mystery seed mail
In summer of 2020, several states across the U.S.
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...
reported mysterious, unsolicited packages containing unknown and unidentified seeds of various kinds - the envelopes presented Chinese text in many cases. At least one person planted one type of these seeds, which grew and was analyzed before state officials destroyed the plant. This proved to be ''Benincasa hispida''.
Gallery
File:Winter melon in backyard.jpg, Wax gourd two weeks after flowering
File:India Ash Gourd.jpg, Indian ash gourd
File:Ash Gourd flower vijayanrajapuram.jpg, Gourd flower.
File:Winter melon.jpg, Wax gourd
File:Wintermelonsoup.jpg, Chinese winter melon soup
Melon soup is a soup prepared with melon as a primary ingredient. Melons such as bitter melon, cantaloupe, crenshaw melon, honeydew (casaba melon) and winter melon may be used, among others. Some melon soups are prepared with whole pieces of me ...
File:冬瓜糖.jpg, Chinese winter melon candy
File:Winteelon flowers.jpg, Wax gourd plant flowering
File:Winter melon seed.jpg, Seeds
References
External links
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q652206
Benincaseae
Flora of Nepal
Fruit vegetables
Medicinal plants
Melons
Filipino cuisine
Austronesian agriculture