wild cucumber

not listed

N5 - Secure

SNR - Unranked

not listed

FAC - Facultative

FACW - Facultative wetland

FACW - Facultative wetland

Wild cucumber is an annual, herbaceous, high-climbing vine. It has separate male and female flowers, both appearing on the same plant.

The stems are hairless and can extend 15′ to 25′.

The tendrils are branched.

The leaves are alternate and are attached to the vine on long leaf stalks. They are 2¾″ to 5″ long. They have 3 to 7 but usually 5 sharply-trialgular lobes with pointed tips. The margins have tiny, widely-spaced teeth.

The male and female flowers are borne separately from the same leaf axils. The male inflorescence is a 12″ to 16″ long, erect cluster of many flowers. The female inflorescence is a solitary flower or a pair of flowers.

The flowers are white or greenish-white, about ⅓″ wide, and star-shaped. They have 6 thin, long petals.

The fruits are attached individually. Each fruit is a green, inflated, egg-shaped capsule. It is 1″ to 2″ long and is covered with soft prickles. It contains 4 seeds.

Climbimg: 15′ to 25′ long

White or greenish-white

Bur cucumber (Sicyos angulatus) leaves are more shallowly-lobed. The flowers have 5 petals. The fruit is smaller, no more than ⅝″ long; is not inflated; and contains only 1 seed.

Canada moonseed (Menispermum canadense) leaves are more shallowly-lobed. The leaf stalk attaches to the blade a little less than ½″ inside the margin.

Wet to moist. Riverbottoms, streambanks, thickets, woods, roadsides.

July to September

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 24, 28, 29, 30.

Native

Vine

Inflorescence

Leaves

Fruit

Location: Woodbury, Minnesota

Location: Woodbury, Minnesota

Location: Woodbury, Minnesota

Location: Highway 5 and Cty Hwy 10 between Waconia and Chaska - its everywhere and completely blanketing trees, pines, maples and shrubs. I also see it from Hwy 5 on the U-MN Landscape Arboretum property.

Will this harm the beautiful trees it is engulfing and completely covering?

The vines are weak, so I would not expect the tree to be damaged by it. However, it is considered a weed, it is unsightly in a yard, and it will return next year. Wild cucumber is easy to control by pulling the vine, preferably before it goes to seed.

Location: My Yard, Coon Rapids, MN

I will be killing the plant as we have pets who like vegetables.