WILD CUCUMBER

WILD CUCUMBER VINES (USDA PHOTO, LOST MY OWN))

Monday, 10 AM EDT.  From Columbus, Ohio.  It is warm, humid and cloudy, with a chance of a thunderstorm; typical Ohio summer weather.  We had a relatively easy two day trip, although we encountered heavy traffic in spots.
   At this point the roadsides are mostly green, many of the colorful summer flowers fading and the goldenrods not yet in their prime.  Corn and beans look great everywhere.  Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio look prosperous, farming and the general economy much improved.
   One of the rather prominent roadside and woods edge plants encountered en route is the wild cucumber,  its vines  rambling over trees and shrubs in wet spots, making many woods edges look like they have a bad haircut.  The vines are pretty in an unkempt way, and are sometimes planted to climb on arbors, but I wouldn't want them to eat my house.
  Wild cucumber, Echinocystis lobata, in the Gourd (Cucurbitaceae) Family, is common throughout much of southern Canada and the lower 48 states of the US. The Latin genus name refers to the prickly fruit, and the species name to the distinctly lobed leaves. Since wild cucumber  has at times been used as an ornamental vine, it is also escaped from cultivation.  It is an annual that climbs by tendrils like the garden cucumber, but is not related to it.  Each "cucumber" or "balsam apple" bears four seeds, which reportedly were used as beads by American Indians.
   The plant is said to have had some use among Native Americans as an analgesic and a bitter tonic, and as a love potion.