Chinese-cucumber

Trichosanthes kirilowii, the Chinese cucumber or snake gourd, is a perennial climbing vine in the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), native to East Asia and widely cultivated in China and Korea. It grows from a large, fleshy, tuberous root and climbs by branched tendrils to several metres, with slender, ridged stems and broad, alternate leaves that are palmately three- to seven-lobed with toothed margins and a rough texture. The plant is usually dioecious; the white flowers have deeply and elaborately fringed petals, the fringes giving the corolla a lacy appearance, and open in the evening. The fruit is a smooth, ovoid to globose gourd 7 to 10 centimetres across, ripening from green to bright orange-yellow, containing flattened pale brown seeds in a sticky pulp. The species is best known as a source of important traditional Chinese medicinal materials derived from its fruit, seeds, and starchy root, the last yielding the protein trichosanthin.