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| Marah fabaceae |
| Family: Cucurbitaceae (Cucumber) |
| Flowers — color: white, size: 1/4", type: 6 petals |
Wild Cucumber has separate male and female flowers. The creamy white flowers have five or six petals and a yellow-green center. Branching flower stem holds dozens of male flowers on short stems. The female flowers are solitary and marked by the round fuzzy ovary beneath the petals.
Habit:
Wild Cucumber is a perennial herbaceous vine. In our area it dies back every summer, then regrows in the rainy season. It spreads along the ground, then climb oaks and shrubs. The large flat leaf has notches and lobes similar to a maple leaf.
This wild cucumber stores energy in a tuber, often larger than a football, and reported to 100 pounds. This large size started the Manroot common name. The fruit is a two-inch sphere covered in hundreds of spikes. It starts green and ripens to yellow before breaking to release its seed.
The other vine in BMER, Island Morning Glory, is much smaller. Grows in shady oak woodlands, and partial shade in chaparral and coastal scrub.