Kiwano: Annual vine in the cucumber and melon family
Kiwano (Cucumis metuliferus), also known as horned melon, is a sweet tropical fruit.
It is an annual vine in the cucumber and melon family, Cucurbitaceae. It is also called "horned melon" since its fruit has horn-like spines. Ripe fruit has orange skin and lime green, jelly-like flesh. Kiwano is native to Sub-Saharan Africa. It is now grown in the United States, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Chile, Australia, and New Zealand.
| Horned melon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Cucumis metuliferus fruit | |
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Cucurbitales |
| Family: | Cucurbitaceae |
| Genus: | Cucumis |
| Species: | C. metuliferus |
| Binomial name | |
| Cucumis metuliferus E. Mey | |
Kiwano is a traditional food plant in Africa. Along with the Gemsbok cucumber (Acanthosicyos naudinianus) and Tsamma (Citron melon), it is one of the few sources of water during the dry season in the Kalahari Desert. In northern Zimbabwe, it is called gaka or gakachika. There it is primarily used as a snack or salad, and rarely for decoration.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia Simple English article Kiwano, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki Simple English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.