Luffa

Luffa
Egyptian luffa with nearly mature fruit
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Cucurbitales
Family:	Cucurbitaceae
Genus:	Luffa
Species
L. acutangula (Angled luffa, Ridged Luffa) L. aegyptiaca (Smooth luffa, Egyptian luffa) L. operculata (Sponge cucumber) and others

A luffa sponge whose coarse texture helps with skin polishing.

Luffa acutangula seeds. Each division of the ruler is 1 mm. Seeds of Luffa aegyptica look very similar.

The Luffa or Loofah/Lufah (from Arabic لوف) are tropical and subtropical annual vines comprising the genus Luffa. The fruit of at least two species, L. acutangula and L. aegyptiaca, is grown to be harvested before maturity and eaten as a vegetable, popular in Asia and Africa. It is also known as Ridged Gourd and is called জিকা zika in Assamese, 丝瓜 si¹gua¹ in Mandarin Chinese, Turai in Hindi, Gisoda in Gujarati, heeray kAyi in Kannada, wetakolu in Sinhala, mướp khía in Vietnamese language, patola in Tagalog, kabatiti in Ilocano, and gambas or oyong in Indonesia. The fruit of L. aegyptiaca may also be allowed to mature and used as a bath or kitchen sponge after being processed to remove everything but the network of xylem. This version is called Lifah in Arabic, ভোল bhol in Assamese, dhundul in Bengali, ghiya tori or nerua in Hindi or "peerkankai" in Tamil or "beera kaya" in Telugu

Luffa species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Hypercompe albicornis.

Luffa acutangula

A Luffa or Loofah sponge is used like a body scrub. Both the coarse textured sponge and the soft textured sponge are called Luffas or Loofahs.

See also

• Gourd
• Okra
• Lee Wickert
• Lufa (american tradition)

External links

• Multilingual taxonomic information at the University of Melbourne
• Luffa aegyptiaca at Floridata