Gourd
- This article refers to the plant family and its dried fruit shell. For the music group of a similar name, see The Gourds. For details on gourd species, please refer to List of gourds and squashes.
A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae. Gourd is occasionally used to describe crops like cucumbers, squash, luffas, and melons.[1] The term gourd, however, can more specifically refer to the plants of the two Cucurbitaceae genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita,[citation needed] or also to their hollow, dried-out shell. A gourd can also have a hard shell when dehydrated. The best time to plant a gourd is very late spring to early summer and will grow very richly if in warm climate.[2] The hard-rinded fruits can have carving done to create scenes raised in relief.[3] Painting[4] and wood burning[5] are also used to decorate the shells.
Gourds are one of the earliest crops to be domesticated, having been grown for at least 10,000 years as ornamentation or for making musical instruments and utensils (suction cups by Greek Hippocrates around 3rd century B.C.). Normally they are inedible due to a lack of flesh or undesirable flavor, although some varieties such as the snake gourd can be eaten in addition to utilitarian purposes. Gourds of the Lagenaria genus favor a subtropical or tropical climate and grow poorly in cooler regions, so most varieties planted in Zone 7 and below are derived from Curcubita.
Scientists in India [6] have now crossbred six other less popular members of the gourd genus found in the country. These include Teasle gourd (Momordica Dioica), Spine gourd (Momordica Subangulata), Sweet gourd (Momordica cochinchinensis), balsam apple (Momordica balsamina), Momordica sahyadrica, known as vaika in Kerala and Momordica cymbalaria, called athalakka’i in Tamil Nadu. This will make the lesser known gourds commonly available.Gourd is commonly known as lauki or kaddu in Hindi.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ "Cucurbitaceae". Retrieved 24 October 2011.
- ^ Marshall, Carmen, Lopez. "Gourds". Retrieved 24 October 2011.
- ^ Gibson, Bonnie. "Power carving tips". Retrieved 24 October 2011.
- ^ "Painting gourds for bird houses". Retrieved 24 October 2011.
- ^ "Wood burning your gourds". Retrieved 24 October 2011.
- ^ "Bitter gets better". Down To Earth. 2012-09-30. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
[edit] External links
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Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gourd". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.- Erickson DL, Smith BD, Clarke AC, Sandweiss DH, Tuross N (December 2005). "An Asian origin for a 10,000-year-old domesticated plant in the Americas". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102 (51): 18315–18320. doi:10.1073/pnas.0509279102. PMC 1311910. PMID 16352716.
- Smith, Bruce D. (May 1997). "The Initial Domestication of Cucurbita pepo in the Americas 10,000 Years Ago". Science 276 (5314): 932. doi:10.1126/science.276.5314.932.
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