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Echinocystis
Also called Wild Cucumber, Wild Mock Cucumber
Echinocystis is a genus with one species, Echinocystis lobata, a fast-growing annual climbing vine native to North America. Grown as a quick screening vine on fences and trellises, with prickly, inflated fruits that persist through winter.
Echinocystis is a monotypic genus in the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae. The sole species is E. lobata, commonly called wild cucumber and prickly cucumber. It is an annual, sprawling plant that is native to North America. Sicyos angulatus, common name "bur cucumber", is an annual plant with a similar clinging vine growth but different-appearing flowers and seed pods.
The native range across North America includes forty U.S. states (excluding Nevada, Hawaii, Alaska, and most of the far Southeastern states); and nine Canadian provinces. It has also been reported as an uncommon invasive species in the Örség Landscape Protection Area of Hungary near the Austrian-Slovenian border. Similarly it is reported as an adventive alien species that grew in wetland, grassland and human-affected areas of the Carei Plain natural protected area, western Romania.
The plant has been used medicinally by native Americans. The Taos Pueblo of New Mexico used it to treat rheumatism, while the Menominee of Wisconsin made a bitter extract from the roots for use as a love potion and as an analgesic. The powdered root has been used to prepare a poultice to relieve headaches and the seeds have been used as beads.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Echinocystis 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.
