Wild Cucumber

Poisonous

As its name suggests, wild cucumber, or manroot (Marah macrocarpa), is a relative of the garden cucumber, as well as watermelon and squash. The other common name, manroot, comes from the large tuberous root which may be the size and shape of a sleeping man. One root, excavated at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens, weighed 467 lbs.
The root contains a substance that stuns fish, and Native Americans “fished” by tossing pieces of pulverized roots into ponds and streams.

Caution

Unlike its relatives, all parts of the wild cucumber plant are toxic to some degree.

The fruit is a large, green, spiny ovoid, 11⁄2 to 5 inches long, suspended from the vine. Spines stiffen as fruit ages. Up to 16 large seeds are formed within 4 chambers. When mature, the fruit splits open at the lower end, ejecting up to four seeds from each chamber; the attractive seeds are shiny and brown, about the size of a penny.