Wild cucumber is not a particularly substantial vine. Except for its tubers, it is quite delicate.

Wild cucumber, Marah fabacea, is also known as manroot because it develops massive tubers that can weigh as much as a man. Such tubers can supposedly weigh more than two hundred pounds, and some sources claim that they can weigh twice as much. That is a lot of storage.

Their thin leaves, slender vines, tiny flowers and fleshy fruit are not very substantial, and can not be very consumptive. They are quite watery, and leave minimal debris when cut and dried, or when they die back after frost.

So, why does wild cucumber store so much resources within their massive tubers? I have no idea. I realize that it is a survival technique, but this is major overkill. No winter is long enough to justify such extreme storage. No summer is dry enough. No wildlife is voracious enough. No forest fire burns the same place more than once in a season. Furthermore, no gardener is diligent enough.

Seriously, these things are impossible to kill. The vines pull up quite easily, with no resistance. The tuber simply makes more. Secondary vines pull up as easily as the first. The tuber simply makes more. No matter how many times the vines get pulled up, the tuber simply makes more. It never exhausts its resources. Removal of the vines deprives it of its ability to accumulate more resources, or replenish what is used to generate the vines, but it has enough to generate vines for many years.

The only way to eliminate these weeds is to dig up their massive tubers, which are fortunately not very deep underground. Even then, the tubers do not die. This one sat around through last summer, and is still viable. I suppose that we should dispose of it with the trash, since we can not compost it.

This wild cucumber tuber is bigger and much heavier than Rhody, but is smaller than average.

19 thoughts on “Horridculture – Inexhaustible Resources”

    1. Wow, that article is interesting, but . . . off. There are many more than 80,000 giant redwoods here because they are planted beyond their native range, just like they are there. A few live within our landscapes. The area of the Sierra Nevada that they are native to does not have a cool and damp climate. It is much warmer there during the summer than here, and is significantly drier. They dislike mild coastal climates. Wildfire is not a problem for them, since they survive wildfire. Otherwise, they would not live for thousands of years within areas that burn about three times each century. Although vigorous while young, they are getting to the age at which they will soon be expressing their displeasure with the cooler and damper climate there. The coastal redwoods that are native here are not quite as big, but are taller, and would be happier than giant redwoods there because they prefer cooler and damper climates.

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      1. I did wonder about that claim that the climate in the Sierra Nevada is damp…. And are they really ‘under threat from climate change’ in California? It will be interesting to see how the English ones do as they get older. The UK CLIMATE may be slightly milder than 50 years ago, but as far as the WEATHER is concerned I don’t see much of a difference. The two are often confused.

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    1. Even those of us who are familiar with the weedy vines are completely unfamiliar with the huge tubers because we so rarely see them. We only know that the vines are impossible to kill permanently.

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      2. Half of the six species of the genus are exclusive to California. One is also in Nevada. Another is also in Oregon, Washington and rare in British Columbia. Only one species is not native to California, but is in Arizona and rare in New Mexico. I doubt that they travel like certain reptiles and garden statuary.

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      9. No, just west. Yes I have Jenny wrens get here about 5/1 from down south somewhere. Every year, they come and live in the same nest box. Fascinating, how animals know what to do.

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