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| The dangling patola on long vines |
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| Crossing telephone wires |
Occasionally when I get tired of the available snacks in the College of Architecture canteen, I take a short walk from the Architecture building to the University Cooperative store located near Krus-na-Ligas. I sometimes buy chips and drinks, or a newly cooked
turon in one of the community houses. In one of my hot afetrnoon walks to the coop store, I noticed a lot of red small pendulous gourds.
I see these small 'patola' plants growing even in my small roof top garden. They are small vines and their tendrils climb and cover the spines of my large succulent plants. I remove them quickly before they could choke my ornamental plants.
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| The red edible fruit |
In my garden, the 'patola' fruits are less than an inch in length. In the U.P. sidewalks; where they grow and fences, trees and even electrical posts and wires; the fruits are considerably larger and more enticingly red. Makes me wonder if they really are edible, as I have heard from some friends, they taste like cucumber. They probably are more attractive to the birds since they are bright colored, which is why I find them on the 3rd floor level where my garden is.
I asked my friend Ulysses Ferreras if he is familiar with the weed patola. He said it is probably Melothria pendula, a native of South America. And I was hoping they were native. Just another indication how prolific introduced plants are once they get a foothold on our environment.
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| Several red gourds will catch your eye |
2 comments:
i always see those red patola like thing everywhere here at laguna. when i was a kid, i often play with those. but still, i dont know what are those hahah. but im sure its not melothria pendula, it has smaller fruit than those, and its black and taste like cucumber and i tried it before when an uplander told me before that its edible and its good, i guess.
I've always been fascinated by those bright red dangling fruits I see around the campus so I researched as much as I could. I believe it's Coccinia grandis or scarlet gourd/ ivy gourd. The Philippines seem to be part of its native range, though it's originally from Africa (https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/14659). I also read that the green fruit is commonly eaten in India as well as in other Asian countries. I had to try it! I picked some from along Katipunan since the ones near Coop were rather high but I only got the red mature ones. They were already mushy and bland, like the way patola and pipino taste I guess.
BTW, I appreciate your blog a lot. I keep coming back to it though I noticed your last entry was in 2017. Hope to see more posts in the future since they're so informative.
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