Dong Gua

Benincasa hispida, the wax gourd or winter melon, is a vigorous annual climbing or trailing vine in the family Cucurbitaceae, believed native to southern and southeastern Asia and widely cultivated throughout tropical Asia, southern China, India, and the Caribbean for its very large edible fruit. The plant produces stout, ribbed, hispid stems several meters long bearing branched tendrils, and ascends fences and trellises or sprawls across the ground. The alternate leaves are large, palmately five- to seven-lobed, 10-25 cm across, with cordate bases and softly hairy surfaces. The plant is monoecious, bearing large solitary, bright yellow, five-lobed bell-shaped flowers 6-12 cm across, the male and female flowers on the same plant. The fruit is a massive oblong to spherical pepo 30-60 cm long, weighing up to 15-30 kg, with smooth green skin that becomes covered in a thick whitish waxy bloom at maturity, snow-white sweet flesh, and many flat, pale brown ovate seeds embedded centrally.