Chinese Cucumber is Growing! 黄烏瓜（キカラスウリ）大きくなってます！

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

This is a fruit of Trichosanthes kirilowii or more commonly known as Chinese cucumber in my neighborhood. I enjoyed its beautiful white flowers and the flowers with Aulacophora nigripennis (a tiny black and orange bug) and Oxyopes sertatus Latrelle (a beautiful pale orange spider), and now have been observing the growth of its fruits. 

Chinese cucumbers are edible, but I've never had or seen them sold. I googled to find how they taste, but only found negative comments. They're sweet but overall astringent, not tasty and that's why they're called in Japanese "yellow gourd for crows," meaning only crows eat the yellow gourds...😂 

But that's not the end of the story! Chinese cucumbers are used for Chinese herbal medicine to reduce fevers, swelling and coughing. I really look forward to seeing the fruit turn yellow😊   

A fruit of Trichosanthes kirilowii 黄烏瓜の実

A Chinese cucumber キカラスウリ

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黄烏瓜（キカラスウリ）です。真っ白の花の上でせっせと働く黒とオレンジのちっちゃい黒瓜葉虫（クロウリハムシ）と薄オレンジ色の笹蜘蛛（ササグモ）については先日書きましたが、その後実が成長していたのでご報告で～す！

調べたのですがキカラスウリは食べられるけど、えぐみがあるのでまずいようです。だから黄色のカラスしか食べない瓜ということで黄烏瓜。かわいそう😂。でも大丈夫、ちゃんと漢方薬として使われてます！

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