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These annual vegetable crops are vining, climbing, or bushy succulent plants. The fruits are grown for eating, oil processing, or containers. Fruits are harvested before seed maturation for fresh consumption. Varieties used for oil are harvested when the fruits are fully mature and the vine stem has dried. Gourds used for containers must dry on the vine until the seeds are loose and rattle inside. Some varieties provide edible flowers and young leaves.

  1. Bottle Gourd Lagenaria siceraria

    Bottle Gourd, Bushel Gourd, Calabash Gourd, Birdhouse Gourd

  2. Wax Gourd Benincasa hispida


  3. Tropical Pumpkin Cucurbita moschata

    Tropical Pumpkin, Calabaza, Winter Squash

  4. Caigua Cyclanthera pedata

    Stuffing Cucumber, Slipper Gourd, Slipper Gourd, Caihua, Achoccha, Korila

    Caigua isan Andean fruit that grows on a climbing vine similar to cucumbers. The mature fruit is hollow and is often stuffed for cooking. The immature fruits and young shoots are eaten raw and cooked.
  5. Buffalo Gourd Cucurbita foetidissima

    Buffalo Gourd

    The buffalo gourd is native to Southwestern North America
  6. Summer Squash Cucurbita pepo

    Summer Squash

  7. Seminole Pumpkin Cucurbita moschata

    Seminole Pumpkin

  8. Tahitian Butternut Cucurbita moschata

    Butternut, Tahitian Butternut

  9. Smooth Luffa Luffa cylindrica

    Smooth Luffa, Sponge Gourd, Dishcloth Gourd, Vine Okra

    Luffas are vining annual plants that produce fruits for food and the luffa sponge. The fruits of Smooth Luffa are preferred for luffa sponges. Angled luffa, C. acutangula, is the preferred species for edible fruit.
  10. Snake Gourd Trichosanthes cucumerina (syn. T. anguina)

    Snake Gourd, Tomato Gourd, Chachera, Chichinga, Padwal, Potlakaya, Pakupis, Tomato Elejo

    A vining annual vegetable crop. The plant produces a wavy cucumber-like fruit that is harvested immature and cooked like a squash. This crop is well suited to growth in the humid lowland tropics. The delicate vines need a trellis. The mature fruit turns orange or red when ripe and can be used in...
  11. Italian Edible Gourd/Cucuzzi Lagenaria siceraria

    Italian Edible Gourd, Cucuzzi, Italian Edible Gourd, Italian Squash, Guinea Bean, New Guinea Bean, Suzza Melon, Tasmania Bean, Zucca

  12. Angled Luffa Luffa acutangula

    Angled Luffa, Ridged Loofah, Chinese Okra

    Luffas are vining annual plants that produce fruits for food and the luffa sponge. The young fruits of Angled Luffa are edible raw or cooked. Although two species produce a fibrous skeleton in the mature fruit, Smooth Luffa (Luffa cylindrica) is the preferred species for the luffa sponge. This...
  13. Gac Momordica cochinchinensis


  14. Ivy Gourd Coccinia grandis

    Scarlet Gourd