Cucurbitaceae in the context of Marah (plant)

Cucurbita (Latin for 'gourd') is a genus of herbaceous fruits in the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae (also known as cucurbits or cucurbi), native to the Andes and Mesoamerica. Five edible species are grown and consumed for their flesh and seeds. They are variously known as squash, pumpkin, or gourd, depending on species, variety, and local parlance. Other kinds of gourd, also called bottle-gourds, are native to Africa and belong to the genus Lagenaria, which is in the same family and subfamily as Cucurbita, but in a different tribe; their young fruits are eaten much like those of the Cucurbita species.

There is debate about the taxonomy of the genus and the number of accepted species varies from 13 to 30. The five domesticated species are Cucurbita argyrosperma, C. ficifolia, C. maxima, C. moschata, and C. pepo, all of which can be treated as winter squash because the full-grown fruits can be stored for months. However, C. pepo includes some cultivars that are better used only as summer squash.

Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly Cucurbita and Lagenaria. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. Many gourds have large, bulbous bodies and long necks, such as Dipper Gourds, many variations of Bottle Gourd and caveman club gourds. One of the earliest domesticated types of plants, subspecies of the bottle gourd, Lagenaria siceraria, have been discovered in archaeological sites dating from as early as 13,000 BC. Gourds have had numerous uses throughout history, including as tools, musical instruments, objects of art, film, and food.

Calabash (/ˈkæləbæʃ/; Lagenaria siceraria), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, New Guinea butter bean, Tasmania bean, zucca melon and opo squash, is a vine which is grown for its fruit. It belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae, is native to tropical Africa, and cultivated across the tropics. It can be either harvested young to be consumed as a vegetable, or harvested mature to be dried and used as a kitchen utensil (typically as a ladle or bowl), beverage container or a musical instrument. When it is fresh, the fruit has a light green smooth skin and white flesh.

Calabash fruits have a variety of shapes: they can be huge and rounded, small and bottle-shaped, or slim and serpentine, and they can grow to be over a metre long. Rounder varieties are typically called calabash gourds (L. s. var. depressa) . Calabash gourds can grow to great size. One grown in Taylorsvlle, Kentucky in 2001 weighed 111.5 kg (246 lb). The gourd was one of the world's first cultivated plants grown not primarily for food, but for use as containers. The bottle gourd may have been carried from Asia to Africa, Europe, and the Americas in the course of human migration, or by seeds floating across the oceans inside the gourd. It has been proven to have been globally domesticated (and existed in the New World) during the Pre-Columbian era.

Momordica charantia (commonly called bitter melon, gouya, cerassee, goya, bitter apple, bitter gourd, bitter squash, balsam-pear, karela, karavila and many more names listed below) is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean for its edible fruit. Its many varieties differ substantially in the shape and bitterness of the fruit.

Bitter melon originated in Africa, where it was a dry-season staple food of ǃKung hunter-gatherers. Wild or semi-domesticated variants spread across Asia in prehistory, and it was likely fully domesticated in Southeast Asia. It is widely used in the cuisines of East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

The cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is a widely-cultivated creeping vine plant in the family Cucurbitaceae that bears cylindrical to spherical fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables. Considered an annual plant, there are three main types of cucumber—slicing, pickling, and seedless—within which several cultivars have been created. The cucumber originates in Asia extending from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, China (Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi), and Northern Thailand, but now grows on most continents, and many different types of cucumber are grown commercially and traded on the global market. In North America, the term wild cucumber refers to plants in the genera Echinocystis and Marah, though the two are not closely related.

The watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is a species of flowering plant in the family Cucurbitaceae, that has a large, edible fruit. It is a scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, and is widely cultivated worldwide, with more than 1,000 varieties.

Watermelons are grown in favorable climates from tropical to temperate regions worldwide for its large edible fruit, which is a berry with a hard rind and no internal divisions, and is botanically called a pepo. The sweet, juicy flesh is usually deep red to pink, with many black seeds, although seedless varieties exist. The fruit can be eaten raw or pickled, and the rind is edible after cooking. It may also be consumed as a juice or an ingredient in mixed beverages.

A mandrake is one of several toxic plant species with "man-shaped" roots and some uses in folk remedies. The roots by themselves may also be referred to as "mandrakes". The term primarily refers to nightshades of the genus Mandragora (in the family Solanaceae) found in the Mediterranean region. Other unrelated plants also sometimes referred to as "mandrake" include Bryonia alba (the English mandrake, in the family Cucurbitaceae) and Podophyllum peltatum (the American mandrake, in the family Berberidaceae). These plants have root structures similar to members of Mandragora, and are likewise toxic.

This article will focus on mandrakes of the genus Mandragora and the European folklore surrounding them. Because these plants contain deliriant hallucinogenic tropane alkaloids and the shape of their roots often resembles human figures, they have been associated with magic rituals throughout history, including present-day contemporary pagan traditions.

A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. It can also specifically refer to Cucumis melo, commonly known as the "true melon" or simply "melon". The term "melon" can apply to both the plant and its fruit. Botanically, a melon is a kind of berry, specifically a "pepo". The word melon derives from Latin melopepo, which is the latinization of the Greek μηλοπέπων (mēlopepōn), meaning "melon", itself a compound of μῆλον (mēlon), "apple", treefruit (of any kind)" and πέπων (pepōn), amongst others "a kind of gourd or melon". Many different cultivars have been produced, particularly of the true melon, such as the cantaloupe and honeydew.