In early August I wrote about a wild cucumber (Echinocystis lobata, Cucurbitaceae) vine I found in a floodplain forest. I revisited this site a couple of times since then and noted this plant’s progress though the season. By the end of August, it was in full bloom:
Flowers of a wild cucumber (Echinocystis lobata, Cucurbitaceae), photographed 08/22/2010 near Blissfield Michigan.
And now in October, I found that this plant had set some interesting fruit:
Fruit of a wild cucumber (Echinocystis lobata, Cucurbitaceae), photographed 10/17/2010 near Blissfield Michigan.
Although related to the cucumbers everyone knows and loves, this wild fruit is apparently really bitter and therefore inedible.
Mature fruits dry out on the bottom, open up, and forcefully eject their seeds through fluid pressure:
Fruit of a wild cucumber (Echinocystis lobata, Cucurbitaceae), photographed 10/17/2010 near Blissfield Michigan.
