Wild cucumber or prickly fruit popularly considered a weed: the vine does not require special care and is able to sow itself. The long weaving stalks of annuals are outwardly similar to the aerial part of an ordinary cucumber and are endowed with the ability to quickly creep along the ground and trail along nearby supports. Due to active weaving and the ability to grow shoots up to 6 m, wild cucumber is often used in landscape design to create a hedge.
Description and characteristics
Wild cucumber - an annual plant, belonging to the genus of lianas and the pumpkin family. It can be distinguished by the following features:
The stem is covered with stiff short hairs. In one season, the creeping stems of the prickly carp can grow in length from 50 cm to 6 m.
Along the entire length, vines are evenly distributed on long petioles leaves like leafy plates of edible cucumber: are strongly dissected into several blades.
The lower part of the light green leaf plates is covered with short white hairs. Antennae are located near the leaf plates, with which it clings to the supports.
Enters the flowering phase in June and blooms until the beginning of autumn... The white-green female flowers of the liana grow singly or in pairs, the male flowers are collected in small inflorescences.
Regardless of gender flowers consist of 6 petals and are located in the leaf axil... During flowering, a pleasant sweetish aroma emanates from the inflorescences.
After the end of flowering, fruits are tied on the liana, from a distance resembling an ordinary cucumber, only their shape is more round, and the thorns are much longer than that of the fruit of a cultivated plant.
The set fruits are painted in a muted green color, and turn brown upon reaching maturity... The skin of the fruit changes closer to ripening and changes its delicate structure to a tough one.
Inside the thorny fruit, in two compartments, there are 4 brown or black seeds, shaped like pumpkin seeds. As soon as the fruit ripens, it explodes and scatters seeds around itself.
If a lot of precipitation fell during the growing season, water is squirted out of the fruit, which carries the seeds several meters away from the mother plant.
To avoid uncontrolled self seeding fruits must be torn off before they crack.
Use in traditional medicine
From dried stems, fruits and rhizomes prepare medicinal broths, tinctures, powders.
- preparations from it have antibacterial, laxative and diuretic effects;
- a drug based on prickly fruit is used as anthelmintic and antitumor agents;
- infusions of wild cucumber are prescribed by folk healers for the treatment of malaria, inflammatory liver diseases, and reducing swelling;
- the powder is used for diseases of fungal origin.
Before using drugs, you should consult your doctor.
Despite its use for many medicinal purposes, the plant is very poisonous... The skin in contact with the juice of the vine is covered with burns and wounds.
Eating fresh fruit or the aerial green portion will cause severe poisoningmanifested by vomiting, headaches, bloody diarrhea, drowsiness.
The origin of the wild cucumber
Curious gardeners brought the exotic liana from North America just a century ago.
In this short time, the wild cucumber moved from European botanical gardens to the open spaces of all of Europe, and quickly spread throughout the continent. Now it can be found in Siberia, the Caucasus, China and even Japan..
Application in the country
Due to the peculiarity of the creeper, quickly grow stems and braid the space around them, it is often used for landscaping summer cottages, as well as for obtaining honey.
In the last century, the creeping plant was often used to decorate public places. Now they create a hedge from the plant, decorate them with balconies and terraces, as well as the walls of high rooms.
Liana is planted near a special trellis, the purpose of which is to hide boxes, utility rooms, inventory from guests. It looks especially beautiful during flowering and ripening of fruits that change color.
Vine flowers give off a pleasant aroma that attracts bees, so the plant can often be found near hives.
About the use of wild cucumber at their summer cottage:
Difficulties in growing
Every plant in the garden requires care from the owner. In order for the cultivation of a wild cucumber to bring benefit and joy to the gardener, the plant must be looked after.
Since the vine is very unpretentious to care for and does not require the creation of special conditions, the main thing in care is to control its spread.
Among the usual manipulations, experts recommend periodically watering the vine during a severe drought. In order for the stems to grow in the right direction, you need to coordinate their movement.
The fact is that the plant is capable of self-sowing in the surrounding area. Therefore, it is recommended to sow a plant near fences that are located far from their own and neighboring gardens.
If you do not look after the wild cucumber, it is able to capture most of the site.
To prevent abundant self-seeding, it is recommended to pick the fruits before they ripen or to weed the emerged seedlings in the spring, which are very similar in appearance to pumpkin seeds.
To clear the area of adult vines, just cut off the stem before winter. You don't need to dig out the rhizome - it dies by itself before the onset of spring.
Wild cucumber - an amazing combination of beauty, healing substances and dangerous poison... An annual creeping plant is used to decorate summer cottages and eliminate health problems.
Growing a plant is practically devoid of any difficulties, except for self-seeding control and giving the desired shape.