Wild Cucumber (aka: Manroot) on the Fence

Spiky little wild cucumber growing on the veggie garden fence

Just a wild cucumber (Marah macrocarpa) growing on the fence in the vegetable garden.

Unlike real cucumbers, these are a member of the gourd family and toxic. It’s perennial native to San Diego, growing from a big, woody tuber that can get as big as person (thus the nickname “manroot”).

The spiky fruit will dry out, just like a gourd, then crack open and drop seeds everywhere. One of the interesting things about the seedlings is the first growth goes down rather than up. That turns into the tuber from which the plant then grows upward.

What I really remember about this plant is when we were kids my friends and I would find them and throw them at each other like grenades. If you were lucky and got a good throw, it’d get stuck in their hair and be really hard to remove without pulling some hair out with it.