Gourd Family

The Cucurbitaceae ( kew-KUR-bih-TAY-see-ee), also called cucurbits or the gourd family, are a plant family consisting of about 965 species in 101 genera. Some commonly cultivated cucurbits include:

Cucurbita – squash, pumpkin, zucchini (courgette), some gourds.

Lagenaria – calabash (bottle gourd) and other, ornamental gourds.

Coccinia – the ivy gourd.

Citrullus – watermelon (C. lanatus, C. colocynthis), plus several other species.

Cucumis – cucumber (C. sativus); various melons and vines.

Momordica – bitter melon.

Luffa – commonly called 'luffa' or ‘luffa squash'; sometimes spelled loofah. Young fruits may be cooked; when fully ripened, they become fibrous and unpalatable, thus becoming the source of the loofah scrubbing sponge.

Cyclanthera – caigua.

Sicyos edulis – chayote.

Gerrardanthus — the species G. macrorhizus has gained some popularity as an ornamental caudiciform plant.

Xerosicyos — the silver dollar vine (Xerosicyos danguyi) is popular amongst horticulturists and plant collectors.

The plants in this family are grown around the tropics and in temperate areas of the world, where those with edible fruits were among the earliest cultivated plants in both the Old and New Worlds. The family Cucurbitaceae ranks among the highest of plant families for number and percentage of species used as human food. The name Cucurbitaceae comes to international scientific vocabulary from Neo-Latin, from Cucurbita, the type genus, + -aceae, a standardized suffix for plant family names in modern taxonomy. The genus name comes from the Classical Latin word cucurbita, meaning "gourd".