Snake Gourd

Snake Gourd

Scientific name:Cucumis sativus L.

English name: Snake Gourd.

Local name: ‘Chichinga’

Taxonomic Position According to Cronquist (1988)

Botanical Description of Snake Gourd

Habit: An annual, climbing herb.

Root: Tap root system

Stem: Slender, branched, angular, puberulous.

Leaf: Leaves cordate, suborbicular or orbicular-reniform.8-16 x 6-15 cm, membranous, more or less deeply 5- (rarely 3-7) lobed, lobes usually obovate, finely denticulate, petioles 5-10 cm long, stout, striate, villose.

Inflorescence: Plants monoecious.

Male flowers: Peduncles 10-25 cm long, robust, 8-15 flowered, calyx tube sub-cylindrical, slightly dilated at the apex, 2-3 x 4- 5 mm, puberulous, corolla c 8 x 3 mm, 5-lobed, lobes oblong, fimbriate, 3-nerved. stamens 3,inserted in the calyx tube, filaments slender, c 2 mm long, anthers ovoid, pistillode 15-17 mm long.

Female flowers: solitary, calyx and corolla as in the male, ovary narrowly fusiform, more or less villous, style slender, stigmas 3. Fruits very long, up to 1.5 m, cylindric, smooth, twisted with 6-8 white stripes along with the length. Seeds c 12-17 x 8-10 mm and c 3-5 mm thick, oblong, finely rugulose, undulate, apex round or obscurely truncate, base attenuate.

Economic Importance: This plant is largely used as vegetables either boiled or in curries. The fruits are used as a tonic. The roots and seeds are anthelmintic, and applied in biliousness and syphilis.

Table 1. Snake gourd variety developed by BARI, Joydebpur, gazipur, Bangladesh