Dong Gua Zi

Benincasa hispida is a vigorous annual climbing or trailing vine in the Cucurbitaceae family, cultivated throughout tropical and subtropical Asia, where it is known as wax gourd or winter melon. The stems are stout, angular, and hispid with stiff hairs, bearing branched tendrils that allow climbing. The alternate leaves are broadly ovate-cordate, 10-25 cm across, palmately five-to-seven lobed, with rough bristly surfaces. Large solitary yellow flowers, 6-12 cm across, are borne in the leaf axils, the plant being monoecious. The fruit is a large oblong to nearly cylindrical pepo, 30-100 cm long, with a thick green rind that develops a conspicuous waxy white bloom at maturity, and white flesh containing numerous flat, ovate, cream-colored seeds. The seeds (Dong Gua Zi) are about 1-1.5 cm long, with smooth or marginally ridged faces, used in TCM as a sweet, cool herb that clears lung heat and resolves phlegm.