Caigua

Cyclanthera pedata

Cyclanthera pedata ( in Quechua achuqcha or KAYWA, it span Caigua [ kaiwa ], dt also called " Inca cucumber " ) is a plant belonging to the gourd family ( Cucurbitaceae ), whose leaves and fruits serve the human diet.

Features

The species is an annual climbing plant. She has bare stems that smell strongly like cucumbers during crimping. The petioles are 2.5 to 11 inches long. The leaves are large and deeply palmately lobed. The size ranges from 6 × 8 to 19 × 24 inches.

The species is monoecious. The male flowers are in 4 to 35 cm long racemes, the female stand individually. The flowers are greenish to white and relatively small for the family.

The fruit is partially hollow and resembles a bubble. The shape is teardrop-shaped to oblong. It is yellowish- green and is five to 15 inches long. Often she wears spines. The seeds are black.

The chromosome number is 2n = 32

Dissemination

The species is in America, especially in the South American Andes, native. It occurs in Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina. It is cultivated there and spread wild too. The species is also cultivated in Asia (India, China). It is relatively cold tolerant and grows to 2800 m above sea level. You also still growing at temperatures just above 0 ° C.

Use

The leaves are eaten raw or cooked. The fruits are eaten raw like cucumber or cooked. When cooking, the seeds are removed and the fruit often filled with various ingredients. Hence the English common name comes stuffed cucumber. The seeds are also edible.

Documents

• R. W. Robinson, D. S. Decker -Walters: cucurbits. CAB International, Wallingford 1997, p.111 - 112. ISBN 978-0-85199-133-7
• Rafael Lira Saade: Cyclanthera edulis. In: Flora Mesoamericana retrieved 5. April 2008.