The cucumber is the edible fruit of the cucumber plant Cucumis sativus, which belongs to the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, as do melons and squash. The plant has been cultivated for 3000 years and is widely cultivated today. The cucumber plant has large leaves that form a canopy over the fruit. The vine is grown on the ground or on trellises, often in greenhouses.

The fruit is commonly harvested while still green, though generally after the fruits outgrow their spines. They are eaten as a vegetable, either raw, cooked, or made into pickled cucumbers. Although less nutritious than most fruit, the fresh cucumber is still a very good source of vitamin C, vitamin K, and potassium, and also provides some dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin B6, thiamin, folate, pantothenic acid, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, and manganese. The pickling process removes or degrades much of the nutrient content, especially that of vitamin C.

Cucumbers are usually green-skinned, roughly cylindrical, elongated, with tapered ends, and may be as large as 60 cm long and 10 cm in diameter. Cucumbers grown to be eaten fresh (called slicers) and those intended for pickling (called picklers) are similar. Slicers grown commercially for the North American market are generally longer, smoother, more uniform in color, and have a tougher skin. Slicers in other countries are smaller and have a thinner, more delicate skin. Picklers are generally shorter and thicker.

Flowering and pollination

A few varieties of cucumber are parthenocarpic, the blossoms creating seedless fruit without pollination. Pollination for these varieties degrades the quality. In the US, these are usually grown in greenhouses, where bees are excluded. In Europe, they are grown outdoors in some regions, and bees are excluded from these areas. Most cucumber varieties, however, are seeded and require pollination. Thousands of hives of bees are annually carried to cucumber fields just before bloom for this purpose. Cucumbers may also be pollinated by flies.

Symptoms of inadequate pollination include fruit abortion and misshapen fruit. Partially pollinated flowers may develop fruit which are green and develop normally near the stem end, but pale yellow and withered at the blossom end.

Traditional varieties produce male blossoms first, then female, in about equivalent numbers. New gynoecious hybrid cultivars produce almost all female blossoms. However, since these varieties do not provide pollen, they must have interplanted a pollenizer variety and the number of beehives per unit area is increased. Insecticide applications for insect pests must be done very carefully to avoid killing off the insect pollinators.

It is claimed that the seeds can cause some people to burp, though there are also references to this being caused by bitterness of the skin. Burpless varieties are available.

Cucumbers are used in the decorative food art, garde manger. In July 2006, the Dusenbery family of Houma, Louisiana cross-pollinated a cantaloupe with a cucumber to produce a "cuculoupe".

Other plants called cucumbers

• Several varieties of Cucumis melo, which are technically melons, are commonly called--and grown and used as--"cucumbers", notably the so-called Armenian cucumber.
• In North America "wild cucumber" refers to manroot (Marah spp.).

References

Footnotes

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External links

• Plant profile at the Plants Database (http://plants.usda.gov/) - shows classification and distribution by US state.
• Cucumbers, regular: Plants for a Future database

Cucurbitaceae | Vegetable-like fruits | Plants and Pollinators

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