ID please, young plant!

September 4, 2007 7:01 PM

WTF is this plant that apparently we are growing very successfully?

It is fruiting in some sort of squashey manner? It has leaves sort of like a cucumber meets a watermelon? It has tendrils and hairs (cilia?) much like a cucumber on its growing tips? Hey, it's doing REALLY WELL somehow!

posted by RJ Reynolds to home & garden (18 comments total)

That's the spitting image of the yellow squash my mother grew every year when I was little. Ours always took over the whole vegetable garden.
posted by internet!Hannah at 7:07 PM on September 4, 2007

Not sure exactly what it is, but it's definitely in the squash family. Off the top of my head, it looks like a type of fruit I've seen in Asian markets before--bitter melon, maybe?
posted by soviet sleepover at 7:07 PM on September 4, 2007

Hmph. Decidedly squashey, as you say. Thing about squash is that they're awfully promiscuous, and are happy to cross-pollinate with other cucurbitae in the neighborhood. I assume that since you pose the question, you didn't plant it yourself.

Is it growing in a garden? Did you grow squash/cukes/gourds/melons last year? Is it growing from a compost heap? If you're not responsible, then it's likely the bastard hellspawn of two cucurbits you would recognize. It may not have a canonical name, being a weird cross.
posted by mumkin at 7:11 PM on September 4, 2007

Zucchini
posted by tellurian at 7:15 PM on September 4, 2007

Not a bitter melon, they have 5 lobed leaves. I'm guessing Armenian cuke.
posted by jamaro at 7:18 PM on September 4, 2007

I say give it a week or two and you will have a more definite answer. This year we had a very large "volunteer" squash plant come up out of nowhere. The fruit was still green when we figured out it was a pumpkin, likely the offspring of the rotted jack-o-lantern I'd hurled into the garden in early Dececember. Now it runs 30 feet across the back wall of our garden and has three orange pumpkins. Enjoy the anticipation.
posted by exogenous at 7:27 PM on September 4, 2007

Loofah Gourd! (Maybe)

'Nother link.
posted by Stewriffic at 7:49 PM on September 4, 2007

Why, it looks like no squash I've ever seen before.

I suspect in a few weeks the question will be "Is it edible?" I've had weird wild squashes that common local wisdom says are not. mumkin, any idea how to tell if these weird crosses are edible?
posted by yohko at 8:08 PM on September 4, 2007

I'd second jamaro's Armenian cucumber guess. If so, you're lucky - they're tasty, plus less watery and less seedy than the usual cuke.
posted by jocelmeow at 8:14 PM on September 4, 2007

I second the promiscuity theory. All sorts of weird crosses happen very frequently with squash, gourds, cukes, etc. As far as seeing whether they're edible...it's not like it's gonna be poisonous...just try eating it, cooked a few different ways, or raw. Can't really hurt.
posted by SixteenTons at 8:32 PM on September 4, 2007

Does it look like this?

hur hur hur

Seriously, though, seconding zucchini. Mmm!!
posted by ZakDaddy at 9:51 PM on September 4, 2007

I'm gonna go with Stewriffic and luffa.
posted by wsg at 9:55 PM on September 4, 2007

Not zucchini- zucchini has a more basal growth habit, doesn't make tendrils- it's a bush squash. I agree that it looks quite a bit like an Armenian cucumber, but I lean towards luffa. Which you can cook and eat when the fruits are 6" or smaller.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:40 PM on September 4, 2007

And I second Sixteen Tons' approach to determining whether it's edible: eat it. This is how exciting new varieties are discovered, RJ Reynolds, like Tomacco :)

BTW, on the subject of cucurbit promiscuity, it's my understanding that while it's a frisky genus, they're not so indiscriminate as to cross species. Whatever you've got, it won't be a cucumberdew melon.
posted by mumkin at 10:52 PM on September 4, 2007

Bitter melon?
posted by Iron Rat at 10:54 PM on September 4, 2007

I'm also going to go with Armenian cucumber, which is actually a melon (though eaten underripe, like a cuke--a cukealope, if you will, or a cantacumber). Looks just like the ones I grew last summer.
posted by pullayup at 5:20 AM on September 5, 2007

It is exactly an Armenian Cucumber, also known as a Snake Melon. I have those growing in my gardens right now. Close relative to the honeydew melon, but used as a cucumber.
posted by ewagoner at 7:58 AM on September 5, 2007

I love each and every one of you. (I learned a bunch of stuff from this!) And the group appears to be correct--it's looking more and more like these pictures of Armenian cucumbers every moment. Yay AskMe!
posted by RJ Reynolds at 7:02 AM on September 6, 2007