Bottle gourd or calabash gourd
Family Cucurbitaceae
Lagenaria siceraria (= Lagenaria vulgaris), bottle gourd or calabash gourd (L. siceraria 1), is a monoecious climbing annual herb with large soft leaves and axillary borne solitary white flowers (L. siceraria 4). The fruits are very variable in shape, up to 1 m long, with a hard and durable rind, more or less bottle-shaped (L. siceraria 5) (L. siceraria 6).
Distribution
The bottle gourd is probably the only crop that was known to the Old and New World since prehistoric times. The fruits are capable of floating in sea water for a long time and it seems likely that they drifted from tropical Africa to Brazil. It must have reached Asia at a very early date. Remains of it are known from archaeological sited in Mexico and Peru and from ancient Egyptian tombs. The Maoris took it to New Zealand about the 12th century.
Use
Bottle gourds are usually cultivated for the hard shells of the fruit, which are used for various domestic utensils, like bottles, bowls and containers (L. siceraria 3), floats for fishing nets, musical instruments, etc. The fruits are harvested when fully ripe and the flesh is taken out by an opening and the skin is dried. Young fruits are sometimes eaten as a boiled vegetable (L. siceraria 2), but they turn bitter during ripening. The bottle gourd should not be confused with the true calabash, which is the fruit of Crescentia cujete (C. cujete 1) of the family Bignoniaceae.