Wild Cucumber

Wild Cucumber

Wild Cucumber, Balsam Apple Echinocystis lobata is a vine with branching tendrils and maple-shaped leaves. It grows along streambanks and in other moist places. Clusters of white flowers grow from the point where a leaf joins the stem and each flower has six petals. The female flowers produce a single fleshy inedible fruit which is covered with prickles and contains four large seeds. The Ojibway name for this plant is Matchigiminuk which means "evil berries". [CH] {GW}