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Ecballium
Ecballium is a genus with one species, Ecballium elaterium, the squirting cucumber, a trailing perennial from the gourd family. It is grown as an ornamental and is best given a sunny, dry, well-drained spot where its spreading habit and invasive tendency can be managed.
Ecballium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cucurbitaceae containing a single species, Ecballium elaterium, also called the squirting cucumber. Its unusual common name derives from the ripe fruit squirting a stream of mucilaginous liquid containing its seeds as a means of seed dispersal, an example of rapid plant movement.
E. elaterium is native to southern Europe, northwestern Africa, and southwestern Asia. It is grown as an ornamental plant elsewhere, and has become naturalised locally in Australia, central and western Europe, central Asia, New Zealand, and eastern North America. It is considered an invasive species.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ecballium by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
