PUBLISHED IN: A Flora of North America: containing… 1(3): 542. 1840.

TYPE:

ETYMOLOGY: lobata refers to the lobed leaves.

BASIONYM: Sicyos lobata Michx., Flora Boreali-Americana 2: 217. 1803.

SYNONYMY: Echinocystis echinata (Muehl. ex Wlld.) Britt., Sterns & Pogg., Preliminary Catalogue of Anthophyta and Pteridophyta Reported as Growing Spontaneously within One Hundred Miles of New York. 1888.
     Echinocystis echinata (Muehl.) Vass.

INFRASPECIFIC TAXA:

VERNACULAR NAME: balsam-apple

OTHER VERNACULAR NAMES: prickly cucumber, burr cucumber, mock cucumber, mock-apple, wild cucumber

CULTIVARS:

DESCRIPTION: Monecious; annual.

CHROMOSOME NUMBER: 2n = 32.

DISTRIBUTION: Primarily northeastern United States and adjacent Canada.

ECOLOGY:

EDIBLE USE:

MEDICINAL USE: Sometimes used medicinally by American Indians.

OTHER USE: Cultivated as an ornamental, particularly for use as a vine along fences and hedgerows.

ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE:

CONSERVATION:

CULTIVATION PRACTICES:

SEEDS AVAILABLE FROM:

LITERATURE: Fernald, M. 1950. Gray's Manual of Botany (ed. 8). 1632 pp.
     Gleason, H. A. & A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of the Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada (ed. 2). 910 pp.
     Radford, A. E., H. E. Ahles & C. R. Bell. 1968. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. 1183 pp.
     Walters, D. & T. Walters. 1997. Echinocystis lobata: a cucurbit with a northern temperment. The Cucurbit Network News 4 (2):1–2.

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