We gift each other our small garden produce, I was just gifted this and she said it’s “a cucumber, but it’s not ripe yet”. This looks nothing like the cucumbers I’m used to, and they’re eaten mostly green. Tapping on it, it sounds like a gourd (like there’s a hollow inside).
Any ideas what are these? I’m guessing it will pair well with the sponge gourd and okra they’ve given.
I grew some Indian cucumbers this year (in the UK) called ‘poona kheera’, they started out almost white then turned orange when starting to ripen! They weren’t quite as spherical as yours but not by too much. They tasted like regular cucumbers but were particularly crunchy.
You should be able to make recipes that normally use cucumber, they should taste pretty normal. It may be due to the strain of plant, but this can also happen to normal cucumber planta if the roots are stunted and they don’t get enough sun. Color-wise, I have a few cukes that look like that from my garden, and the round shape just betrays the fact that cucumbers are actually a kind of melon!
If this isn’t your neighbor’s first garden, I’d assume they’re correct, cucumbers can definitely grow like this. There are even heirloom varieties that always grow round, they’re also more yellow than common cucumber varieties. Easiest way to tell would be to cut into one.
I grow lemon cucumbers that look pretty much exactly like that, only difference is there’s slightly more pronounced striping.
Cut it open, smell it, report back.
Probably a lemon cucumber
Automatic identification via PlantNet summary
Most likely match: Mangifera indica L.
Common name Scientific name Likeliness Mango Mangifera indica 35.47 % Purple granadilla Passiflora edulis 10.82 % Bell apple Passiflora laurifolia 4.04 % Colocynth Citrullus colocynthis 2.72 % Common passion flower Passiflora caerulea 1.34 % Beep, boop
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically.
Dumbass bot thinks this is a mango.
And it’s proud of itself.
