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Cucumis sativus
| Common name: |
Cucumber |
Family: |
Cucurbitaceae |
| Author: |
L. |
Botanical references: |
|
| Synonyms: |
|
| Known Hazards: |
The sprouting seed produces a toxic substance in its embryo[65]. |
| Range: |
Possibly native of the E. Indies, but the original habitat is obscure. |
| Habitat: |
Not known in a truly wild situation. |
| Edibility Rating (1-5): |
4 | Medicinal Rating (1-5): | 2 |
| Other Common Names: | From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below. |
| Arou [E], Cowcumber [H], Cucumber [L,H,E], Garden Cucumber [P,B], Hiyar [E], Hu Kua [E], Huang Kua [E], Katimun [E], Khiyar [E], Khiyar Mai [E], Komkommer [D], |
| Epithets: | From a Dictionary of Botanical Epithets |
|
sativus = cultivated;
|
| Systematics: | From a USDA Plants Database |
|
Order: Violales. Cucumber family
|
| Other Range Info: |
From the Ethnobotany Database |
|
Britain; China; India; India(Santal); Indochina; Iraq; Java; Kurdistan; Turkey; Venezuela
|
Physical Characteristics
Annual Climber growing to 2m. It is hardy to zone 10 and is frost tender. It is in flower from July to September, and the seeds ripen from August to October. The flowers are monoecious (individual flowers are either male or female, but both sexes can be found on the same plant) and are pollinated by Insects.
The plant is self-fertile.
We rate it 4/5 for edibility and
2/5 for medicinal use.
The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and requires well-drained soil.
The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils.
It cannot grow in the shade.
It requires moist soil.
Habitats and Possible Locations
Cultivated Beds.Edible Uses
Fruit; Leaves; Oil; Seed.
Fruit - raw or cooked. The cucumber is a common ingredient of salads,
being valued mainly for its crisp texture and juiciness[1, 2, 7, 46].
However, it is very watery, with little flavour and is not very
nutritious[K]. Many people find the fruit to be indigestible, this is due to
the high cellulose content[7]. The fruit varies widely in size between
cultivars but can be up to 1 metre long. It can be available from mid summer
until early autumn from outdoor grown plants.
Seed - raw[57, 86]. Rich in oil with a nutty flavour but very fiddly to use
because the seed is small and covered with a fibrous coat[K].
Young leaves and stems - cooked as a potherb.
Oil from seed[61]. Said to resemble olive oil, it is used in salad dressings
and French cooking[183]. The oil contains 22.3% linoleic acid, 58.5% oleic
acid, 6.8% palmitic acid and 3.7% stearic acid[218].
Medicinal Uses
Disclaimer
Aperient; Diuretic; Skin; Tonic; Vermifuge.
The leaf juice is emetic, it is used to treat dyspepsia in
children[218].
The fruit is depurative, diuretic, emollient, purgative and resolvent[7, 21,
201, 218]. The fresh fruit is used internally in the treatment of blemished
skin, heat rash etc, whilst it is used externally as a poultice for burns,
sores etc and also as a cosmetic for softening the skin[218, 238].
The seed is cooling, diuretic, tonic and vermifuge[4, 218]. 25 - 50 grams of
the thoroughly ground seeds (including the seed coat) is a standard dose as a
vermifuge and usually needs to be followed by a purgative to expel the worms
from the body[4].
A decoction of the root is diuretic[218].
Other Uses
Cosmetic; Repellent.
Cucumber skins have been shown to repel cockroaches in laboratory
experiments[218].
The fruit is applied to the skin as a cleansing cosmetic to soften and
whiten it[4, 7, 238]. The juice is used in many beauty products[4, 7].
Cultivation details
Requires a rich, well-drained moisture retentive soil and a warm very
sunny position[200].
A frost-tender plant, the cucumber is commonly cultivated for its edible
fruit, there are many named varieties[46, 183]. Many of these varieties are
only suitable for protected cropping in Britain though there are a number
that have been specifically bred for cool temperate areas and these succeed
outdoors in most summers[200]. Many of the cultivars, especially the
greenhouse forms, should have their male flowers removed in order to prevent
fertilization, since the fertilized fruits have a bitter taste. A number of
cultivars have been developed that only produce female flowers[142].
Cucumbers make good companion plants for sweet corn, beans and
sunflowers[18], but they dislike growing with potatoes and aromatic
herbs[20].
The roots of cucumber plants secrete a substance that inhibits the growth of
most weeds[201].
Propagation
Seed - sow early to mid spring in a greenhouse in a rich soil.
Germination should take place within 2 weeks. Sow 2 or 3 seeds per pot and
thin out to the best plant. Grow them on fast and plant out after the last
expected frosts, giving them cloche or frame protection for at least their
first few weeks if you are trying them outdoors.
Cultivars
- ''
- There are many named varieties of this annual vegetable, with new forms being developed each year. At present there is not time to enter these in the database and it is recommended that you consult the book 'The Fruit and Vegetable Finder' which is updated regularly and can be obtained from libraries.
Suppliers
For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.
Web References
- Latin and Worldwide Common Names
From Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database by M. H. Porcher et. al. 1995 - 2000
Landcare Systems Research Laboratory, Department of Crop Production,Institute of Land and Food Resources, The University of Melbourne, Australia.
- Details of Medicinal Uses, Habitats, etc. in M. Grieve A Modern Herbal (1931) [4]
- [H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
- [E] Ethnobotany Data
(common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
- [V] Images
from the Vascular Plant Image Gallery of the Texas A&M Bioinformatics Working Group.
- [B] Data
(Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
- [PHARM] Phytochemical Data
(common names, uses, countries) from Dr Duke's Phytochemical Database.
- [G] Data
(Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
- [P] Data.
(uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
- [HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database
See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.
Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.
[K] Ken Fern
Notes from observations, tasting etc at Plants For A Future and on field trips.
[1] F. Chittendon. RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 Oxford University Press 1951
Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaces in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [200]).
[2] Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6
Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.
[4] Grieve. A Modern Herbal. Penguin 1984 ISBN 0-14-046-440-9
Not so modern (1930's?) but lots of information, mainly temperate plants.
[7] Chiej. R. Encyclopaedia of Medicinal Plants. MacDonald 1984 ISBN 0-356-10541-5
Covers plants growing in Europe. Also gives other interesting information on the plants. Good photographs.
[18] Philbrick H. and Gregg R. B. Companion Plants. Watkins 1979
Details of beneficial and antagonistic relationships between neighbouring plants.
[20] Riotte. L. Companion Planting for Successful Gardening. Garden Way, Vermont, USA. 1978 ISBN 0-88266-064-0
Fairly good.
[21] Lust. J. The Herb Book. Bantam books 1983 ISBN 0-553-23827-2
Lots of information tightly crammed into a fairly small book.
[46] Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
[57] Schery. R. W. Plants for Man.
Fairly readable but not very comprehensive. Deals with plants from around the world.
[61] Usher. G. A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. Constable 1974 ISBN 0094579202
Forget the sexist title, this is one of the best books on the subject. Lists a very extensive range of useful plants from around the world with very brief details of the uses. Not for the casual reader.
[65] Frohne. D. and Pfänder. J. A Colour Atlas of Poisonous Plants. Wolfe 1984 ISBN 0723408394
Brilliant. Goes into technical details but in a very readable way. The best work on the subject that I've come across so far.
[86] Organ. J. Gourds. Faber 1963
Deals with squashes and their relatives. Interesting and readable, it gives cultivation techniques and some details of plant uses.
[142] Brouk. B. Plants Consumed by Man. Academic Press 1975 ISBN 0-12-136450-x
Readable but not very comprehensive.
[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.
[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
[201] Allardice.P. A - Z of Companion Planting. Cassell Publishers Ltd. 1993 ISBN 0-304-34324-2
A well produced and very readable book.
[218] Duke. J. A. and Ayensu. E. S. Medicinal Plants of China Reference Publications, Inc. 1985 ISBN 0-917256-20-4
Details of over 1,200 medicinal plants of China and brief details of their uses. Often includes an analysis, or at least a list of constituents. Heavy going if you are not into the subject.
[238] Bown. D. Encyclopaedia of Herbs and their Uses. Dorling Kindersley, London. 1995 ISBN 0-7513-020-31
A very well presented and informative book on herbs from around the globe. Plenty in it for both the casual reader and the serious student. Just one main quibble is the silly way of having two separate entries for each plant.
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Plant information taken from the
Plants For A Future -
Species Database.
Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
Blagdon Cross, Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon, EX21 5DF, UK.
Website: www.pfaf.org Phone: 0845 458 4719/_44(0) 1208 872963 This page (UK) http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Cucumis+sativus
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