PUBLISHED IN: Index Seminum [Goettingen] 1831: 2. 1831. Annotation: also in Linnaea 8, Litt.-Berich.: 23. 1833.

TYPE:

ETYMOLOGY:

BASIONYM: Momordica pedata L., Species Plantarum 2: 1009. 1753.

SYNONYMY:

INFRASPECIFIC TAXA:

VERNACULAR NAME: slipper gourd

OTHER VERNACULAR NAMES: achoccha, lady's slipper, stuffing cucumber, cyclanthera
     Chinese: sai huang gua
     French: concombre grimpant
     Portuguese: taimiá de comer, taimiá de cipó
     Quechua: achojcha
     Spanish: pepino de relleno, caigua or caihua (Peru)

CULTIVARS:

DESCRIPTION:

CHROMOSOME NUMBER: 2n = 32.

DISTRIBUTION: Cultivated on a limited basis in parts of Mexico south through Central America and into Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Believed to have been first domesticated in the northern Peru/ southern Ecuador region.

ECOLOGY: 0–3000 m.

EDIBLE USE: Young fruits taste like cucumbers, and can be eaten raw or made into pickles. Mature fruits are cooked and consumed in soups and stews or stuffed with rice, meat, and/or cheese. Young shoots, called “guelites” in Costa Rica, and the leaves are eaten as greens.

MEDICINAL USE: A tea of the seeds is used for controlling high blood pressure.

OTHER USE:

ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE:

CONSERVATION:

CULTIVATION PRACTICES:

SEEDS AVAILABLE FROM:

LITERATURE: Brako, L. & J. L. Zarucchi . 1993. Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Gymnosperms of Peru. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden. 45: i–xl, 1–1286.
     Breedlove, D. E. 1986. Flora de Chiapas. Listados Florísticos de México. 4: i–v, 1–246.
     Dieterle, J.V.A. 1976. Cucurbitaceae. In Nash, D.L. (Ed.), Flora of Guatemala - Part X, Number 4. Fieldiana, Botany. 24(11/4): 306–395.
     Dodson, C. H. & A. H. Gentry. 1978. Flora of the Río Palenque Science Center: Los Ríos Province, Ecuador. Selbyana. 4(1–6): i–xxx, 1–628.
     Foster, R. C. 1958. A catalogue of the ferns and flowering plants of Bolivia. Contributions from the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University. 184: 1–223.
     Jørgensen, P. M. & S. León-Yánez (eds.). 1999. Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of Ecuador. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden. 75: i–viii, 1–1182.
     Macbride, J. F. 1937. Cucurbitaceae, Flora of Peru. Field Museum of Natural History, Botanical Series. 13(6/2): 321–383.
     Molina R., A. 1975. Enumeración de las plantas de Honduras. Ceiba 19(1): 1–118.
     Zarucchi, J. L., Funston, A. M., et al. 2001+. Checklist of the Flora of China. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden.

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