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Melothria scabra
Also called Mouse Melon
Mexican sour gherkin (Melothria scabra) is a fast-growing climbing vine in the gourd family, grown for its grape-sized, cucumber-flavoured fruit. It is frost-tender and usually grown as an annual in cool climates, climbing a trellis in warm, sunny conditions.
Melothria scabra, commonly known as the cucamelon, Mexican miniature watermelon, Mexican sour cucumber, Mexican sour gherkin, mouse melon, or pepquino, is a species of flowering plant in the cucurbit family grown for its edible fruit. Its native range spans Mexico to Venezuela. Fruits are about the size of grapes and taste like cucumbers with a tinge of sourness. It may have been eaten by indigenous peoples before the European colonization of the Americas began.
Melothria scabra is cultivated as a minor crop for its fruits, which are eaten raw or pickled.
Melothria scabra is native to Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela, where it grows in forests and thickets.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Melothria scabra 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.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
