Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Wild Cucumber hides a bit in the landscape until mid-summer when the annual herbaceous vine accelerates its climb from the garden floor. It grows quickly with many 3–forked tendrils clinging to support plants and soon it has spread itself over a large area. The tendrils arise at the leaf nodes, but 90 degrees to the leaf stem. These are touch sensitive and contract to a coil when they contact a support. The stem is hollow, flexible, and 5-ridged.

Leaves are thin, rough on each side, on long stalks,with a heart-shaped base and 3 to 7 triangular lobes, mostly 5.

The inflorescence is a long erect raceme rising from the leaf axils.

Flowers: After vining, suddenly there is a burst of white as the 6-part male flowers bloom. The flowers are of separate sexes (monoecious). Both sexes are showy with 6 long thin greenish-white petals opening to a star formation. These always seem to have a partial twist. The staminate (male) flowers have 3 stamens with yellow s-shaped anthers that are united into a column. The margins of the petals have glandular hairs. Mixed in at the base of the raceme, but developing slightly later from the staminate flowers are 1 to 4 of the pistillate (female) flowers. These also have gland-tipped hairs and beneath the petals is the green 6-lobed ovary that is softly prickly outside making it look larger than it is. The style has a blunt tip. This ratio of male to female is why after seeing so many white flowers one sees only a few of the cucumber fruits.

Fruits: These are green oval inflated capsules, usually about 2 inches long, with longitudinal veins, covered with soft prickles and containing four chambers, each of which produces a flat brown seed. The prickles are tipped with a small gland when young. The capsule opens from the bottom in autumn releasing the seeds. Dry seeds are about 15 x 7 mm (5/16 x 5/8 inch) The seed capsule is quite conspicuous as the vine is usually draped over other plants or woodpiles, etc., and the leaves have fallen away leaving only the green to brown capsule hanging from the bare vine. The seeds require 60 days of cold stratification for germination.

Habitat: Wild Cucumber grows in a variety of soils from moist to dry woodlands, but sun is required.

Names: The genus name is made up of two Greek words - echinos, which is difficult to discern as it seems to mean "hedgehog" and probable refers to the spines on the fruit capsule and cystis, which means "bladder" - this is easy to discern from the capsule shape. The species name lobata is Latin for "lobed" and can refer to the lobed ovary and the resulting lobed fruit.

The author names for the plant classification are: The first to classify was ‘Michx.’, which is for Andre Michaux (1746-1802), French botanist who made many exploring expeditions in the U.S. collecting and cataloging many species. Two important works of his are the Histoire des chênes de l'Amérique septentrionale (1801 - Oaks of North America), and the Flora Boreali-Americana (2 vols., 1803). His son Francois, traveled with him and the father’s notes were later used for the 3-volume North American Sylva, for which Thomas Nuttall provided some supplements. Michaux's work was advanced by ‘Torr.’ is for John Torrey (1796-1873), American botanist, who, among many things, taught Asa Gray, contributed to the early parts of Flora of North America and who published the reports of plants collected by Stephen Long, by John C. Fremont’s 1842 and 1843-1844 Exploring Expeditions to the Rocky Mountains and Howard Stansbury's Exploration of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, 1849-1850. One of his paper’s on the Long expedition was the first to use the new natural system of classification, replacing the old Linnaean system which classified by sex.

Collaborating with him was his pupil, ‘A.Gray’ is for Asa Gray (1810-1888), American botanist, Professor of Natural History at Harvard and instrumental in unifying plant knowledge of North America and author of Gray’s Manual - Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States, from New England to Wisconsin and South to Ohio and Pennsylvania Inclusive. He was a student of John Torrey and became his assistant. His first book, Elements of Botany was the first text to use the new Natural System of classification. He and Torrey collaborated for the remainder of their lives.

Comparisons: There is another plant called One-seeded Bur Cucumber, Sicyos angulatus, that has a similar looking capsule, but different flowers and leaves and less frequently seen in Minnesota.