Umoh, Omodot Timothy;Bassey, Margaret Emmanuel
Trichosanthes cucumerina
Sign in to saveAlso known as Ash gouard
species of tropical vine native to South Asia
Species
Snake Gourd
SPECIES
- KingdomPlantae
- PhylumTracheophyta
- ClassMagnoliopsida
- OrderCucurbitales
- FamilyCucurbitaceae
Common Name: palwal
via GBIF · Kew POWO
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 198
- With media
- 146
- Family
- Cucurbitaceae
- Collections
- RSA, ANSP, MICH, NY, MEL, US
- Recorded in
- Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, Vanuatu, Senegal, Micronesia, Federated States Of, Philippines, Myanmar
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Parent taxon
- Trichosanthes
- Image
- Trichosanthes anguina.jpg
- Has use
- medicinal plant
Show 9 more facts
- taxon rank
- species
- taxon name
- Trichosanthes cucumerina
- Commons category
- Trichosanthes cucumerina
- Commons gallery
- Trichosanthes cucumerina
- taxon common name
- 瓜叶栝楼
- taxon range
- Tibet Autonomous Region
- short name
- T. cucumerina
- taxon author citation
- L.
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Trichosanthes cucumerina is a tropical or subtropical vine. Its variety T. cucumerina var. anguina raised for its strikingly long fruit. In Asia, it is eaten immature as a vegetable much like the summer squash and in Africa, the reddish pulp of mature snake gourd is used as an economical substitute for tomato. Common names for the cultivated variety include snake gourd, serpent gourd, chichinda padwal and Snake Tomato.
Trichosanthes cucumerina is found in the wild across much of South and Southeast Asia, including India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar(Burma) and southern China (Guangxi and Yunnan). It is also regarded as native in northern Australia. and naturalized in Florida, parts of Africa and on various islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Trichosanthes cucumerina” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.