CUCUMBER

Cucumber plants are vines that fruit during the warm time of the year. The little pickling gherkin is more suited to cooler climates than most other cucumbers.

Plant Names
Botanical Family: 
CUCURBITACEAE
Common Name: 
CUCUMBER
Genus: 
Cucumis
Species: 
sativus
About the Name: 

cucumis was the name used by the Romans for cucumber and sativus meant "cultivated".

Origins: 

From northern India, their centre of diversity, the cucumber was transported to China in the 2nd century BC, and also to the Middle East at an early stage. The bible records that the Israelites complained to Moses in the wilderness about the lack of cucumbers; they had become accustomed to them during their stay in Egypt.
The Roman Emperor Tiberius was said to have taken pride in his out-of-season hothouse cucumbers. The Romans were well aware that a rich soil, warmth and moisture are essential to their growth. It was a common practice to grow them in large baskets filled with horse manure and rich soil. Thin sheets of lapius specularis (mica) were placed over the baskets and this admitted the light nearly as freely as glass would have done. The ancient writer Pliny informs us that cucumbers were grown in mobile boxes that were moved indoors at night in order to keep them warm.
Charlemagne had them in his gardens in the 9th century, but it is said that the British had to wait until the 14th century to have a first taste of them!
As a fitting exchange for the botanic wealth of the Americas, it was Columbus who introduced the cucumber over there.

Plant Description: 

Cucumber plants are vines that fruit during the warm time of the year. The little pickling gherkin is more suited to cooler climates than most other cucumbers.

Variety Notes: 

The favourites are Apple and Lebanese. Early Fortune is an old variety used mostly for slicing as the fruit remains firm after it is ripe.
In the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, local farmers and market gardeners are growing a cucumber that has several names, including Richmond River, Easter and Great American cucumber. It is a whitish-yellow cucumber that grows to thirty centimetres (one foot) in length and remains very crisp and does not get bitter. At this stage it divides itself into three long sections with a cavity in its centre. It is not to be confused with the soft white cucumber sometimes sold in the supermarket. One Casino, NSW, farmer, Joe Connolly, was given the seeds at Casino railway station by an American soldier in 1945. He grew it and passed it on to many friends in the region. It is now seen on numerous market gardens stalls and in local greengrocers. The particular value of this cucumber is its ability to produce through the wet season at the end of summer.
In New Zealand, Straight Eight is well remembered for its earliness – fifty five days, from seeds to picking – and may still be available. Telegraph is an old and good glasshouse variety suitable for the South Island.
Christa Sullivan from Watervale, SA grows a German pickling cucumber which she obtained from an old gardener who said that it had been grown by his father and grandfather, and was brought in by German settlers in the Barossa Valley. It is accession number one at Seed Savers. These cucumbers tend to be late maturers but are most suitable for pickling.
Cucumis metuliferus – known as the African Horned Cucumber in Australia but called the Bitter or Jelly Cucumber in Africa. It is called Kiwano in New Zealand, and is often kept until fully ripe, when it is eaten as a fruit. A native of southern Africa, where it is mostly bitter and even toxic in its wild form, the Australian version has a sweet taste. When the Seed Aid Trust sent seeds to Botswana, it was widely accepted by the local people who recognized it as an improvement over their local bitter ones. It has the unusual characteristics of having sharp spikes - don't go harvesting in bare feet - multitudes of seeds and irritating, prickly leaves. Not a "user friendly" plant until you taste its flesh!

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