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Squirting cucumber, primorska štrcalica

Ecballium elaterium

Description:

Ecballium elaterium, also called the squirting cucumber or exploding cucumber, is a plant in the cucumber family. It gets its unusual name from the fact that, when ripe, it squirts a stream of mucilaginous liquid containing its seeds, which can be seen with the naked eye. It is thus considered to have rapid plant movement.

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3 Comments

Bernadette S
Bernadette S 11 years ago

Neat spotting!

Jopy
Jopy 11 years ago

Of course I saw them exploded, seeds fly up few neters. They are not edible, whole plant is poisonous. If the skin comes into contact with the secretion from the fruit, it can cause rashes...

YukoChartraw
YukoChartraw 11 years ago

Very interesting! Have you seen them exploded? I sure want to!
Are the cucumbers edible?

Jopy
Spotted by
Jopy

Croatia

Spotted on Oct 7, 2012
Submitted on Mar 24, 2013

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