What looked like a cucumber seedling emerged in my begonias this spring. It was healthy looking and already had 4 leaves, so I moved it to the cucumber patch. It made lots of vines and lots of flowers and no cucumbers. However, it did produce this:
Mystery Veggie
The skin is soft and smooth with the texture of a zucchini and slightly fuzzy. The vine definitely looks like a cucumber plant. However, the cucumbers I planted were always the dark green, thin, straight type with bumpy skin and spines.
Being curious I picked the fruit and cut it open.
It is a cucumber! I was expecting a mini watermelon or squash interior, but nope, it’s definitely a cucumber. I decided taste it and yes, cucumber. And quite tasty too. I saved some seeds to plant next year and see what comes up. I love science experiments!
Update:
Seems I have another one of these fuzzy cucumber plants. So I began searching the internet for fuzzy spineless cucumbers. And I found that most likely it is a variety of the Carosello Cucumber, probably Barese. They’re actually melons eaten like cukes.
But I still can’t explain how it got in my yard.
