Today’s featured plant is Wild Cucumber, Echinocystis lobata.
Wild cucumber is also known as Balsam Apple, Prickly Cucumber, Wild Balsam Apple, Wild Mock Cucumber and Lace Pants. The term “lace pants” comes from the appearance of the dried fruit.
Range and Identification of Wild Cucumber
Wild cucumber is native to North America, and can be found throughout much of the US and Canada, extra for certain areas in the southeast, southwest and extreme north (see map). It prefers wet areas with some shade, including deciduous woods. We normally find it growing in low lying parts of our prairie area, but this year because of the drought there weren’t as many plants as usual.
The plant is an annual vine, flowering in summer and fall and setting fruit that resemble small, very prickly cucumbers. They are not related to garden cucumbers, Cucumis sativus, although today we did find a cucumber beetle in one of the fruits.
Wild cucumber vines reach from 2-10′ (60-300 cm). The leaves are large and lobed, resembling maple leaves in shape. The stem is square, and like garden cucumbers, it has curling tendrils that allow it to grasp and climb. It readily overgrows trees and shrubs.
The flowers are small, white and very fragrant. Wild cucumbers have both male and female flowers. The male flowers emerge in round clusters about 4-8″ (10-20 cm) across with individual flowers 1/2″ (1 cm) wide. They have six thin petals. A single female flower is found at the base of a male flower stalk.
The fruit of the wild cucumber is a single, large, spiny pod-like container, roughly 2″ (5 cm) long. According to Wildflowers of Wisconsin, it smells and tastes like a garden cucumber, but will cause stomach upset and diarrhea. DON’T EAT THIS PLANT! As it ripens, it dries to a paper-like husk and the blossom end opens and dumps four seeds out of individual chambers. (See Wildflowers Of Wisconsin for more information.)
There are some beautiful photos of wild cucumber at Ontario Wildflowers and Nature Manitoba.
Wildlife Uses of Wild Cucumber
Illinois Wildflowers states that the wild cucumber flowers are visited by several species of bees, flies and wasps. I have not found any reference to wildlife eating the seeds.
Medicinal Uses of Wild Cucumber
Natural Medicinal Herbs states, “The pulverized root is used as a poultice for headaches. A very bitter tea brewed from the roots is analgesic and is also used as a love potion. It is used as a bitter tonic for alleviating stomach troubles, kidney ailments, rheumatism, chills, fevers etc.” They also mention that the seeds have been used as beads.
As always, any medical information is for informational purposes only. Always exercise caution when using any wild plants and make sure you have positively identified the plant.
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Abbi says
We had wild cucmber show up a couple of years ago at our garden. They are rather interesting! We were pretty disappointed to find out that we couldn’t (shouldn’t) eat them but my daughter has had fun using them for crafts anyway. She makes some really adorable little men from dried wild cucumbers. You can see a picture of one in a recent post of mine about decorating for fall: http://proverbs31living.blogspot.com/2012/09/decorating-for-fall.html
CommonSenseIdea says
Abbi – your decorations are cute!
Nikki says
” Wild geranium” starts of the article…is that another name for it? Neat little plant. Too bad its you can’t eat it. Love you site! Thanks for all your research.
CommonSenseIdea says
Whoops! I used the wild geranium post as a template, and it looks like I missed a spot replacing the names. Thanks for letting me know. Here’s the wild geranium post – https://commonsensehome.com/wild-geranium/
Susan Hutchinson says
My husband’s grandmother calls this plant “Jenny Creepers”. She gave us some seeds many years ago, they come up all over the place! I don’t mind as the birds eat the seeds. I agree it is disappointing to learn they aren’t edible for human food. Interesting plant though! 🙂
Terri says
please do not eat the seads almost killed our dog!! very poison!! said 4-5 seads can kill a person!! be very careful!!!
kyle says
I’ve eaten them before, dunno why u would feed em to a dog tho O_o
I actually even had a sort of craving for them while collecting them.
jzep(pronounced joe zep) says
Thanks for telling me about it being poisonous for dogs.
George says
The stem is pentangular, not square, like all other Cucurbitaceae
Sandra says
I ate about 1/2 a teaspoonful on 2/11/15 and almost died. I vomotted non stop for about 3 hrs followed by diarrhea. Today is 2/27/15 and I still feel sick from it. I’m having an endoscopy and colonoscopy on 3/2/15.
Laurie Neverman says
That would be why I recommend, “DON’T EAT THIS PLANT!” I’m sorry you had such a bad experience.
Kerr says
Just eat the green ones not the black riped fruit.
Laurie Neverman says
NO – this plant is not recommended for consumption.
Becka G. says
I went looking for plant information on this plant as my dog found an old seed pod and brought it on to the porch to play with…. Several hours later she came down with diarrhea in the night, she is fine today ( the next morning )….. So be careful of this ” wild cucumber plant ”
pretty to look at but very invasive and the spines hurt if stuck by one. I live in southern Ca. thanks for the site!
Laurie Neverman says
She must have eaten a seed. Glad she’s doing better.
JTR says
Aha! Mystery solved. Won’t be eating this! Apparently it can get quite invasive. Will be pulling this spring.
James Slate says
As kids we would throw them at each other. Great fun, they pop open on impact.
Faye Rogers says
Is there a way to rid of them? They are over taking the trees/bushes on the yard. Thank You!
South Central WI.
Laurie Neverman says
In “Weeds: Control without Poisons”, the author notes that large seeded annual broadleaf weeds like wild cucumber are best controlled by increasing soil fertility. Believe it or not, they thrive in poor soil. I’d consider mulching or top dressing the area where they are with compost. For short term control, we just pull them down if they start getting too crazy smothering a tree.
JACKLYN HEUER says
why are there so many this year they are all over what can I do to get rid of them?
Laurie Neverman says
I’ve noticed that the wild cucumbers are abundant in our area this year, too. I’ve seen more this year than any year I can remember. They seem to like the weather. Lots of goldenrod this year, too.
The plant is an annual, so it must start new from seed each year. If possible, cut it back or pull it before it seeds out. Most weed seeds can persist in the soil for years, even decades, waiting for the right conditions to germinate and thrive. This was that year for wild cucumber.
You can use commercial or homemade weed control sprays or other options (https://commonsensehome.com/natural-weed-control/), but they will affect the surrounding plants as well. There’s nothing species specific that I have found.
JACKLYN HEUER says
will they kill dairy cows if eaten?
Laurie Neverman says
I haven’t found wild cucumber listed in the dozen or so lists of plants toxic to cattle that I searched. Usually they will avoid a plant that’s toxic, unless there is absolutely nothing else to eat.
Vickie says
You can dry the larger ones and use them as a loofah Sponge for the bath.
Laurie Neverman says
Ours don’t get much bigger than a couple inches long. Do they grow larger in your area?
Janet H says
I’m in Southern California and most of the pods get to be the size of baseballs – smaller on younger vines but on the ones that come back year after year they are really big. My goats and sheep will eat the leaves and they don’t seem to bother them
Laurie Neverman says
As I understand it, only the seeds are a potential problem.Thanks for sharing your experience.
Pa girl says
Can humans eat the leaves? I ate a small one. It was very sweet. Absolutely delicious and had no adverse reaction. That said it was only the size of 3 quarters.
Laurie Neverman says
According to a comment on the Minnesota wildflowers website post about wild cucumber, leaves and growing tips are edible.
Paul M. Cunningham says
I had the great idea of pulling off all the wild cucumber pods and covered the picnic table with them. Could have covered the two benches as well, but the Mrs. didn’t see the fun in it as I did. Now the idea is just control the spread to areas I don’t want them. I took them away before they matured, so I stand a chance for success. Did you also notice they contain a sort of oily residue in them? What’s with that?
Laurie Neverman says
I haven’t handled them much, since they grow in the more wild areas of the property. The only oil reference I readily found was from The Nature Collective, which noted: “The oil from the seeds was often used to reverse baldness; chemicals in wild cucumber have pharmacological activities similar to chemicals used in modern baldness treatments.”
Paul M. Cunningham says
I wonder about other wild plants in the yard. There’s jewel weed which grows right next to the poison ivy and is actually the antidote to it. There seems to be an orange flower and a yellow flower variety. Ther is what is called pokeberry that I wonder about. Is there anything on wildflower remedies? I see the thing on poisonous plants. Not sure if it is the same thing.
Laurie Neverman says
I’m not sure I understand the question.
Yes, jewelweed can be found in yellow and orange variations, and often grows near plants that cause irritation, like poison ivy or stinging nettle.
I don’t have an article on pokeweed on the site yet, because I haven’t spotted any on our land or nearby. I know poke leaves and shoots were eaten as a cooked spring green. The berries can be eaten if cooked. There is some risk to eating the plant.
Ohio State University notes: