ECBALLIUM A.Rich. - SQUIRTING CUCUMBER
Scientific Description:
Prostrate perennial herb, without tendrils. Rootstock stout. Flowers pale yellow, monoecious, the male racemose, the female solitary. Hypanthium very short, campanulate. Petals united towards the base. Stamens free, with broad connectives and flexuous anther-thecae. Ovary minutely tuberculate, hispid. Fruit oblong-ellipsoid, greenish, glaucous, muricate, hispid, at maturity coming away from the peduncle and forcibly expelling the seeds through the aperture so formed. Seeds numerous, ovate, obscurely margined.
Reference:
Jeffrey C (1972). Ecballium A. Rich., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 4: 203.
Public Description:
Ecballium, commonly known as “squirting cucumber” or “exploding cucumber”, is native to Europe, northern Africa, and temperate areas of Asia. There is only 1 species (1 taxa) in Türkiye and the world. It contains poisonous “cucurbitacins”, and all parts of the plant can be fatal if ingested. In some places, it is grown as an ornamental plant and it is naturalized in such places. In the ancient world it was considered to be an abortifacient.
References:
Anonymous 1 (2017). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecballium,Accessed date: 09.08.2017.
Anonymous 2 (2017). http://www.theplantlist.org/1.1/browse/A/Cucurbitaceae/Ecballium/,Accessed date: 09.08.2017.
Anonymous 3 (2018). https://www.britannica.com/plant/Cucurbitaceae, Accessed date: 30.01.2018.
Aslan S (2012). Ecballium A.Rich., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 389.
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