Squirting Cucumber - Ecballium elaterium
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Species Description
A native of the Mediterranean which is sometimes grown in gardens for intrigue of its exploding fruits but very rarely escapes or becomes naturalised. When ripe, the fruits become pumped full of liquid, building up pressure until they burst, forcing the fruit to break away explosively, ejecting its seeds everywhere. Two subspecies are recognised: ssp. elaterium (typical monoecious plants with the same range of distribution as the species. They also appear to have leaves which are distinctly longer than broad and slightly more lobed or frilled) and ssp. dioicum (dioecious plants from Iberia with leaves which are about as broad as they are long and less lobed or frilled and generally paler in all its parts (especially the fruit) Plant Biodiversity of South-Western Morocco see Anales Jard. Bot. Madrid 45(2):586-588 (1988) for description).
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Subspecies
| name | latinname | species | sightings | media | image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Squirting Cucumber | Ecballium elaterium subsp. elaterium | 1 | 2 | 5 |  |