Another "Identify this for me" thread.

[elementfiftyfour]

I never figured I would be one that needed help identifying a particular plant but it turns out that I have finally come across something that I don't quite recognize. The plant in question is a volunteer that started growing under my eggplants. Now that the eggplants have lost most of the greenery and the weather has cooled down some this little sucker has taken off across the garden and started to produce fruits. The fruits are at max about 1.5" in diameter and seem to ripen up to an orange color. I cut one open the other day and it looked, not too surprisingly, like a melon inside. My guess is that it is a parent from the Lemon Cucumbers I grew last year but they just aren't quite the same.
This is a pic of a lemon cucumber.
[img]https://www.wholetraditions.com/blog/uploaded_images/DSC_0066-(1)-733676.jpg[/img]


These are the pics of my mystery fruit/veg. Can anyone guess what it is?

[img]https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/elementfiftyfour/2010-10-14082908.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/elementfiftyfour/2010-10-14083019.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/elementfiftyfour/2010-10-14082918.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/elementfiftyfour/2010-10-14082954.jpg[/img]

[garden5]

Well, I would conclude that this is definitely a lemon cucumber that grew up from last year's and is just different since the previous variety was a hybrid..............except for the fact that I just read of a few sites selling lemon cucumbers and is says they are heirlooms!

What may have happened is one of your lemon cucumbers crossed with another variety and that fruit rotted and the seed grew up and now you have this. Did you grow any other variety of melon or cucumber last year?

[elementfiftyfour]

Last year I had cantaloupe and regular ole cucumbers as well as the lemons.
What do you think the possibility is of this thing crossing with a watermelon? I do have watermelons growing in the garden and the vines from both plants are all mingling together. That could explain the striping on the little fruits.

[img]https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/elementfiftyfour/2010-10-14083109.jpg[/img]

[stella1751]

Elementfiftyfour, I found this cucurbits cross-pollination guide earlier in the summer when researching another oddball: [url=https://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/87-043.htm]Pollination of Vine Crops[/url]. If you scroll down to the bottom of the webpage, you will see some charts that show which cucurbits can cross with which cucurbits.

It does look like a lemon cucumber, but its texture looks rougher. I wonder whether it could have crossed with the cantaloupe?

[applestar]

How big are the fruits? Despite the similarity in color to the Lemon cuke, I think the rounded leaves of the mystery plant suggests a melon plant, and being a volunteer, probably grew from (unsuccessfully) composted seed or accidentally introduced seed (e.g. wildlife?) I put out melon, etc. seeds for birds and squirrels, chipmunks, etc. get what the birds drop (or when the squirrels occasionally manage to get into the feeder )

[garden5]

What's funny is when you look at the pics, both of the green mystery plants and the yellow, ripe ones, they have those "stripes" that are reminiscent of a watermelon . Perhaps this really was a lemon/watermelon cross? Is that possible?

Also, it may be a lemon cuke that crossed with a melon from a neighboring garden. Bees travel pretty far, you know.

[applestar]

But doesn't Stella's link say cukes won't cross with anything else in the garden unless it's an Armenian -- then it can cross with other melons?

[elementfiftyfour]

I suppose the most important thing would be "Is it edible"? I haven't counted them totally but I bet there are at least 30 - 40 of them little buggers out there now. I'm kinda tempted to give it a taste.