Nearctica - Eastern Wildflowers - Curcubitaceae - Wild Cucumber (Echinocystis lobata)

Wild Cucumber

(Echinocystis lobata)

Color photograph: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

Sicyos angulata

The flowers of Bur Cucumber have 5 petals. The capsules are smaller, with a single seed, and are arranged in clusters, not solitary.

Wild Cucumber (Echinocystis lobata)

Identification: Plant a vine. Flowers white in a small raceme at the end of a long flowering stalk. Flower with 6 petals. Fruit an ovoid, spiny, capsule with a 4 seeds, capsules solitary. Stem with corkscrewlike tendrils. Leaves large, palmate, usually with strong, pointed lobes.

Distribution: Throughout most of North America except for the southeastern United States and California-Nevada.

Habitat: Wild Cucumber is found in thickets and along stream and river banks.

Flowering period: June to October.

Wild Cucumber (Echinocystis lobata)

Similar Species:

Bur Cucumber (Sicyos angulata)

Similar Species