Ecballium elaterium
Exploding cucumber, Squirting cucumber
Also known as Momordica elateria
- Height × spread
- 0.5m × 1m
- Position
- Full sun
- Hardiness
- Cold to -15C (RHS H5)
- Flowers
- Summer
Availability
Please ask in store about availability
Many plants are seasonal. Call 01234 567890 to check current stock.
About this plant
An intriguing plant that is generally grown with a barricade of warning notices and is perhaps best observed in a botanic garden rather than your own. It makes a spreading plant having large handsome leaves. They are triangular in shape and robust with raised sides, and sometimes have some lobes on the sides. There are yellow flowers and cucumber-like bristled-green fruits. When ripe they explode as an effective means of seed distribution. It is advised to keep a distance as seeds can cause injury if they get in the eyes. The plant is violently purgative. It has medicinal uses for a number of conditions, but can be fatal if taken in excess.
- Flower colour
- Yellow
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Fruit colour
- Green
- Variegated
- No
- Scent
- No
- Shape
- Dome
- Height
- 0.5m
- Spread
- 1m
- Season of interest
- Summer
- Flowers in
- Summer
- Evergreen
- Deciduous
- Garden style
- Exotic garden
- Sun or shade
- Likes full sun
- Soil type
- Chalk, Loam (normal)
- Soil pH
- All types
- Drainage
- Well drained soil, Dry soil
- Hardiness
- Cold to -15C (RHS H5)
- Borders & containers
- Borders
- Hazards
- Yes, fruit is prickly/thorny and potentially harmful; Humans: Irritant to skin/eye
Spring
Spring-Autumn · Outdoors
Water during dry periods
For plants in the ground, when there has been little or no rain for a period of 7-10 days and the soil is dry, give it a deep watering and repeat weekly until there is a downpour of rain. Check plants in pots more frequently, especially in hot weather.
Summer
Summer - early · Outdoors
Feed a general fertiliser
Where plants have moderate needs for nutrients, they can simply be given a general feed, fairly early in the growth season so that the growth has plenty of time to harden off before the cold weather.
Give plants a general boost with the application of a general purpose fertiliser which is spread around the root area of the plant, with amounts as directed on the feed label.