| Description | An annual herbaceous vine producing a spiky fruit vaguely resembling a cucumber. A creeping or climbing vine. |
|---|---|
| Plant Type | All Plants, Wild Flowers |
| Hardiness Zone | 4 |
| Sunlight | full to part sun |
| Moisture | wet to moist |
| Soil & Site | found growing on stream banks, thickets, roadsides |
| Flowers | florets are 6-parted, small about 1/3 inch and white, an inflorescence with many male flowers and a few female. |
| Fruit | soft spined inflated capsule (pepo), four seeds |
| Leaves | alternate, long stalked, palmate, three to five pointed lobes, |
| Stems | slender vine, creeping or climbing, tendrils |
| Dimensions | over 20 feet in length |
| Propagation | seeds |
| Native Site | An annual introduction from Europe. |
| Misc Facts | Echinocystis: Greek echinos for "hedgehog" and cystis for "bladder," from prickly fruit lobata: Latin for "lobed" (#100). |
| Author's Notes | This was a common plant in the woods of South Range, Wisconsin where I grew up. |
| Notes & Reference | #81-Weeds of Northern US and Canada (Royer and Dickinson), #100-Wildflowers of Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest (Merel Black and Emmet Judziewicz) |
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