[Diana in Wisconsin]

Up here on 'The Frozen Tundra' when we have an exceptionally wet season, we get an invasive called 'Wild Cucumber' that, while pretty, will eat you alive if you stand still long enough!

OMG! I would NEVER plant it on purpose! These people are nuts, LOL!

"Native to North America, the wild cucumber vine (Echinocystis lobata) is a rambunctious vine that can reach mature lengths of 25 feet (7.6 m.) in a hurry. Wild cucumber vine likes moist areas and is often found near ponds, streams, or in moist meadows or bottomland. However, the vine can pop up in typically dry areas when rainfall levels are higher than average.

Wild cucumber plants climb up vertical surfaces by wrapping their clingy tendrils around anything in their path. The vine can do considerable damage to trees and shrubs by blocking sunlight. However, it makes an attractive plant growing over a pergola, fence or arbor, especially when the plant is covered with tiny white flowers, beginning in midsummer."

The spiny 'fruit' is not edible!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Garden Tour, July 11, 2021:

'Grandma's Favorite' tomato:

Puppy Shasta is slowly learning, 'You mess with de Cat, you get de Claws!'

[Jane Long]

Eeek! Glad you posted that this morning, rather than last night.....it may have worked it’s way into my dreams 😱 😂

That is one, freaky looking plant.

[ApplegateRanch]

THANK YOU! I’ve wondered for 60+ years what the stuff I found growing near a tiny marshy stream near a campground at Shasta Lake, CA was!

[ApplegateRanch]

Yep; People are crazy!

Echinocystis lobata/wild cucumber

Ethnobotanical Uses: Cultivated as an ornamental annual vine (1). Can be used as a poultice for headaches by pulverizing the root. A bitter-tasting tea can be brewed from the roots and used as an analgesic, love potion, and a tonic for stomach troubles, kidney ailments, rheumatism, chills and fever. The seeds have been used as beads (4). Used by the Cherokee for “obstructed menses”, rheumatism, chills, fevers, kidneys, headache, love potion, tonic, stomach troubles, and beads

http://climbers.lsa.umich.edu/?p=264