Vegetable - Snakegourd

Snake Gourd

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About the Vegetable :Snake Gourd is a tropical or subtropical vine, its variety T. cucumerina var. anguina raised for its strikingly long fruit, used as a vegetable, medicine, and in crafting traditional Australian musical instruments known as didgeridoos. Leaves are palmately lobed, up to 25 cm long. Flowers are unisexual, white, opening at night, with long branching hairs on the margins of the petals. These hairs are curled up in the daytime when the flower is closed, but unfurl at night to form a delicate lacy display

Scientific / Binomial name : Trichosanthes cucumerina

Popularly Known as :Snake gourd, Serpent gourd, Padwal, Potlakaya

Usage :

• In making curries, Soups and snacks (Bajji in South India)
• Snake Gourd is found in the wild across much of South and South east Asia, including India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), and southern China (Guangxi and Yunnan).It is also regarded as native in northern Australia and naturalized in Florida,parts of Africa and on various islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.