CUCUMBER FAMILY
Ecballium elaterium(SQUIRTING CUCUMBER)
(Eşek hıyarı, Acı dülek)
(Spritzgurke) Cucurbitaceae
Low to short spreading, prostrate perennial herbs. Stems and leaves hispid, pale green. Leaves alternate, ovate-triangular, heart-shaped,
long-stalked. Male flowers racemose, females solitary. Sepals small, 5. Petals united towards base, pale yellow, up to 12 cm. Fruit green and oblong, like a small cucumber, up to 50 mm long, bristly, recurved on the ends of long erect stalks; exploding suddenly when ripe at the point of attachment, squirting the seed out in a pulply liquid. Fruit medicinal. Fl. April-October. Waste places, roadsides, riverbanks, s.l.
Azores, Mediterranean area, S. Russia, Crimea, Caucasia.
