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.

Gourds grown in a suburban garden

A calabash gourd, used for drinking yerba maté

A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae. Gourd is occasionally used to describe crops like cucumbers, squash, luffas, and melons. 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. The hard-rinded fruits can have carving done to create scenes raised in relief. Painting and wood burning are also used to decorate the shells.

External links

•  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. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&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. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/276/5314/932.