The first horticultural plant propagatedfrom seed in New Zealand:Lagenaria sicerariaMike Burtenshaw1

10 New Zealand Garden Journal, 2003, Vol.6 (1)

IntroductionAmongst the plants that the firstPolynesians to settle New Zealandover 1000 years ago brought withthem, was a member of the familyCucurbitaceae. Most food plants thatsurvived translocation from theirtropical home into our temperateclimate are propagated usingvegetative methods. The mostimportant of these food plants werethe k mara (Ipomoea batatas) andtaro (Colocasia esculentum), with twoothers, the yam (Dioscorea elata) andti pore (Cordyline terminalis),providing minor sources of plantfood. The lone cucurbit, the first plantever propagated from seed by peoplein New Zealand soils, was the bottlegourd, Lagenaria siceraria.

My interest in bottle gourds beganwhen two colleagues and I wereasked to assist in locating plantmaterials that might be used for thereconstruction of the MakotukutukuWharepuni at Te Papa (Burtenshawet al., 1999). I was interested in thefact that the original wharepuni(sleeping house) in the MakotukutukuValley was home to pre-EuropeanM ori gardeners. As a horticulturist,I was interested in what these peoplewere growing there. Foss Leach(1979), whose archaeological teamexcavated the wharepuni site andone of the garden mounds in thegarden area, reported that k maraand gourds were grown in the gardenarea, and that the stone moundswere used specifically for gourdcultivation.

As in Eastern Polynesian, hue(pronounced hoo–e) is the M oriname for bottle gourd although ipuis the more common name in Hawaii

(Maingay, 1985). Wenewene andkowenewene are other names usedon the East Coast of the North Island(Best, 1976). In contemporary usageI have heard the name tah alsoapplied to the fruit of the plant. Thisderives from the names for waterstorage gourd (tah wai) andcontainers for preserved meat (tahhuahua). Originally the word tahwas applied to a gourd with a narrowmouth (Maingay, 1985).

Ngai Tahu legend tells how theMoeraki boulders (Te Kai Hinaki) arethe round food baskets and gourdwater containers from the greatcanoe Arai Te Uru that foundered ina storm near Matakaea (Shag Point).Irregular shaped rocks further southon Katiki Beach are described ask mara that also washed ashore fromthe canoe (Anderson, 1998). Waitah(the water carriers), one of the firstiwi to inhabit the South Island, sharetheir name with one of the M ori

names for gourd water containers.

The gourd is honoured in M ori mythwith a personified form or parent,P -t hue, who was one of theoffspring of Tane. P -t hue remarked“The seeds within me shall providewater vessels for my descendents,some of those seeds are of the malesex and will not bear fruit” (Best,1976, p.245).

The description by Colenso (1880,pp.15-16) of hue provides anexcellent summary of the plant, itscultivation and use in Aotearoa andis worthy of repeating in full as mostsubsequent writers on the subject,including Elsdon Best, refer to it:

“The third food plant cultivated bythem [M ori] was a fine one of thegourd family, called by them the hue.This noble and highly useful plantwas annually raised from seed, andwas their only one so propagated:and, curiously enough, of this plant,though yielding seed in great plenty,there was only one species and novarieties. Its seeds, before sowing,were wrapped in a few dry fernfronds, (Pteris [Pteridium] esculenta),and steeped in running water for afew days. It was to them of greatservice, furnishing not only a prizedand wholesome vegetable food (orrather fruit) during the whole of thehot summer days while it lasted, andbefore their kumara were ripe for use,but was also of great use in manyother ways. It was always a pleasingsight to see it growing in a suitablesoil, as it grew fast and looked soremarkably healthy with its numerousleaves, large white flowers and fruit,the latter often of all sizes, from thatof a cricket ball up to that of aglobular, pear-shaped, or spheroidal

1 The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, Natural Resources Centre, Te  Wahanga  Matauranga Rawa Whenua, Private Bag 31914,Lower Hutt; Mike.Burtenshaw@openpolytechnic.ac.nz

Rampant growth of L. siceraria 'Italian Edible'in the author’s garden.

New Zealand Garden Journal, 2003, Vol.6 (1) 11

figure, capable of holding severalgallons. As an article of food it wasonly used when young, and alwayscooked – baked like the kumara andtaro, in their common earth-oven –and eaten, like them, both hot andcold. Prodigious numbers of themwere formerly daily consumed in thesummer season. It was from thisplant that the Maoris obtained alltheir useful vessels, for holding water,oils, cooked animal food, etc. Thiswas done by carefully drying andhardening the fully mature fruits withthe heat of the sun and fire, and justas carefully scooping out all thecontents, through a small hole madenear the stalk end. In the very smallcalabashes so made, they kept theirperfumed oils, and rouge, foranointing; of the medium sized andlarge ones they made useful dishes,and all their common watercalabashes. While the few verylargest were neatly manufacturedinto pots for holding preserved andpotted birds. For this purpose thestalk end was cut off, and it wasingeniously fitted with a hollowcylindrical neck of carved hard wood,cut out of one piece, and alwaysmade large enough to admit a man’shand through it; this was firmly fixedon above, while below, the rotundvase was also fitted with three (orfour) legs to stand on, and to keepit off the ground. These big vessels

were always prized and taken greatcare of, sometimes they were namedand some lasted a whole generationor longer, and were handed down asheirlooms.”

Best (1976) reports that M ori in theBay of Plenty state that the gourdwas introduced to Aotearoa longbefore k mara and taro, andpostulates this may well be a factbecause seed might more easilysurvive long ocean voyages.

TaxonomyThe bottle gourd or hard-shelledgourd has the Latin binomialLagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standley.This combination was first publishedin 1930 and the basionym isCucurbita siceraria Molina (1782).Lagenaria comes from the Greeklagenos and Latin lagena for “bottle”and siceraria from the Latin, sicerameaning “drinking vessel”. It hasnumerous vernacular names, mostof which relate to cultivar differencesin the shape of the fruit. Commonnames include white-flowered gourd,calabash gourd, the names givenbelow in the section on folktaxonomies and many others.

Following Jeffrey (1990), Lagenariabelongs in the subfamily

Cucurbitoideae, tribe Benincaseaeand the sub-tribe Benincasinae(Figure 1). Other species within thissub-tribe include the wax-gourd(Benincasa hispida), watermelon(Citrullus lanatus), poisonous gourd(Diplocyclos palmatus), squirting-cucumber (Ecballium elaterium),angled loofah (Luffa acutangula) andsmooth loofah (L. aegyptiaca).

There are five other species in thegenus Lagenaria that grow wild inAfrica. These other species aretropical perennials, have a muchthinner shell and are not usually usedas containers. Heiser conducted trialswith three of these species (L.abyssinica, L. sphaerica and L.brevifolia) and produced hybrids withL. siceraria that produced vigorousbut infertile plants. The hybridsproduced only male flowers with nopollen (Heiser, 1979).

The fact that the other five speciesof Lagenaria are all African is themain evidence that L. sicerariaoriginated in Africa. This followsVavilov’s theory that the centre oforigin of a plant is to be found whereit exhibits greatest diversity (Vavilov,1928). However, this principle hasbeen rejected by laterbiogeographers (Cain, 1944; Croizatet al.,1974; Nelson and Platnick,1981).

There are two recognised subspeciesof L. siceraria (Table 1) (Kobiakova,1930; Heiser, 1973). Heiser producedthe most recent classification ofsubspecies based on morphologicaldifferences in leaves, flowers andseeds. He dispensed withKobiakova’s use of fruit shape andfruit colour characters because inhis experience a wide range of fruitshape and colour occursindependent of subspecies. Thesubspecies L. siceraria ssp. sicerariais found mainly in Africa and theAmericas. It has leaves with generallysmooth or unruffled margins, unlobedor rounded-lobed; flowers small tomedium-sized; sepals or calyx lobesshort and broad; and seeds usuallydark in colour and less than twiceas long as broad. The Asian

A range of gourds of different shapes andsizes curing on drying racks.

A gourd nearing maturity hanging from asupporting trellis.

12 New Zealand Garden Journal, 2003, Vol.6 (1)

subspecies (L. siceraria ssp. asiatica)has leaves that are somewhat saw-toothed on the margins and sharplythree to five lobed; larger flowersthan in the other subspecies, withlong slender calyx lobes; and lightcoloured seeds that are usually morethan twice as long as broad. Therehas been no authoritativeinvestigation as to the subspeciesthat occurs in Eastern Polynesia,New Zealand and Oceania in general,although the genetic fingerprintingresearch mentioned below may wellprovide an answer to this question.

Lagenaria siceraria has medium sizedchromosomes with mostly mediancentromeres, but three pairs havesecondary constrictions (Singh,1990). Somatic studies from Indiagive a base gametic chromosomenumber of x = 11. The eleven pairsof chromosomes or 2x = 2n = 22chromosome number occurs in bothAsian and African subspecies(Maingay, 1985). It has beenpostulated that present forms ofLagenaria may be secondarypolyploids that evolved from anancestor with base numbers x = 5,as 5 + 5 +1 = 11 (Verghese, 1971).

A number of genes expressingcharacters such as pest resistance,fruit shape and fruit colour have beendescribed for L. siceraria (CucurbitGenetics Cooperative, 1979).Research continues in India andChina where the plant is still used asa food crop, but the focus tends tobe on cucurbits as a group and thebottle gourd is usually included onlycoincidentally (Singh, 1990). Geneticengineering introducing DNA frombottle gourd into watermelon hasresulted in changes to skin colour,fruit shape and seed colour (Xiao etal., 1999).

Genetic analysis conducted byAndrew Clarke of the Allan WilsonCentre for Molecular Ecology andEvolution at Massey University, hasproduced promising results,discovering genetic markers that canbe used to determine differences atthe cultivar level (A. Clarke, pers.comm.). This work is currently inprogress.

Folk taxonomiesM ori consider hue to be a singlevariety but have different names forthe different sizes and shapes of thefruit. Best (1976) listed thirteendifferent names M ori used todescribe different sizes and shapesof the fruit. This is a logical methodof categorising a plant whose fruitare so varied and is still thecontemporary vernacular way ofdistinguishing bottle gourds.Classification based on fruitmorphology is typical of folktaxonomies associated with L.siceraria in other countries.

Fruit shape is not reliable forscientifically classifying L. sicerariainto botanical subspecies. Heiser(1973) found the shape of the fruitappeared to be equally diverse in allareas of the world except with some,such as the Maranka, a fruit formoriginating in Africa. However, amongcontemporary gourd growers andartists it is fruit shape that is the maincharacter by which gourds aredistinguished. There is a relationshipbetween seed size and fruit size, withlarger seed usually producing largesized gourds. A long-time gourdgrower and artist says that fruit shapecan also often be anticipated fromthe shape of the seed (Polglaze, pers.comm.).

A good example of a modern folktaxonomy is the American GourdSociety’s attempt to standardise thenames of the more familiar shapedgourd fruit (American Gourd Society,2003). The Society has proposedfour main fruit shape types, withcommon descriptive names for gourdshapes within each main type:

1. Basket type, including cannonball, basketball, tobaccobox, canteen, bushel basket, Japanese basket and Acoma/Hopi rattle.

2. Bottle type, including miniaturebottle, martin house, penguin orpowder horn, Indonesian, lump-in-neck, hardshell wartie and Chinese bottle.

3. Dipper type, including short-

handled dipper, mid-sized dipper,extra-long handled dipper, cluband Maranka.

4. Trough/Siphon/Snake type, including banana, snake and zucca.

This popular classification system isuseful for those who grow, trade andcraft gourd fruit, but ignores floral orfoliage differences used in botanicaltaxonomy. Some genes or allelesresponsible for different fruit shapeshave been identified. Under theconventions of the International Codeof Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants(also known as the ICNCP orCultivated Plant Code) (Trehane etal., 1995), each of the named fruitshapes within each type, such as“Club” and “Maranka”, are separatecultivars because self-fertilisedoffspring produce the same shapedfruit as the parent.

Cultivation anddescriptionBeing a tropical plant and an annualwith a long growing season, huerequired skilled cultivation by M oriin order to produce mature fruit foruseable vessels. Seeds were soakedin water and sown at the correctphase of the moon in a humus-filledbasket. This was placed in theground near a fire or kept warm withhot stones to promote earlygermination. Young plants were setout in small hollows, often with smallstones around them to store heatfrom the sun. Once established,plants were earthed up and fertiliserin the form of wood ash was addedto the soil around them.

A 5-6 month warm growing periodis required for fruit to mature fully.This has been a problem for me inLower Hutt over the 2000/2001 and2001/2002 growing seasons. Duringthe spring and early summer seasonsan unusual succession of coolsoutherlies kept temperatures downand my plants established slowly.Without rapid early establishmentbottle gourd does not produce agood crop of mature fruit.

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Leave the gourds attached to thevine until the fruit stem turns brown.Even after most of the leaf has diedthe fruit may still be maturing if thefruit stalk is green. After harvest youneed to store the gourds out of theweather for another six months toallow for “curing”. The outer greenepidermis will decay and the gourdwill lose 90% of its weight as waterevaporates from the fruit. You willhear the seeds rattling inside whenyour gourd is fully dry. At this stagethe remnants of the epidermis canbe washed and brushed from thehard shell.

In a fertile garden soil and given awarm temperate to subtropicalclimate, a bottle gourd plant willspread over a considerable area.This makes it a difficult subject forresearch trials as it requires a largearea to grow a range of cultivars. Theclimbing vine will grow up and overany structure or tree in its way.

The first plants I grew in 1998 of acultivar of the Asian subspecies, L.siceraria 'Italian Edible', had covereda medium sized grapefruit tree andan adjacent raspberry enclosure byFebruary. Growth was more vigorousthan that of pumpkin (Cucurbitapepo) I have grown, but plants canbe trained up a sturdy trellis. Fruitformed hanging down from a trelliswill produce a straight neck gourd,whereas fruit that set on the soilsurface will often have a bent neckproducing a fruit with a moreinteresting appearance. On average,each plant spreads over 25m2. Otherpeople have recorded similar growthspread (Maingay, 1985). Once severalplants grown in close proximity, startto spread and intertwine it is difficultto track the stem of individual plants.My plants of 'Italian Edible' grown in1998 had a main stem that measuredmore than 30m long at the end ofthe growing season. Adventitiousroots are also produced at the nodesparticularly when these touch thesoil. There is variation in vigour, withsmaller fruiting gourds tending to beless vigorous (Heiser, 1979).

Like the vine shoot, the root system

is wide spreading. The roots are whiteto pale cream, and smooth andcircular in cross-section. The taprootcan penetrate down to 60-80cm, butthe bulk of the root system spreadsout and inhabits the topsoil (15-30cm, depending on soil depth). Ina friable soil one would expect theroot spread and mass to at leastmatch those of the top growth, asfor most cucurbits (Weaver andBruner, 1927). I have found noreference to mycorrhizal fungiassociated with L. siceraria roots.

BotanicaldescriptionThe Lagenaria vine stem is deeplygrooved and angular (weakly five-sided) in cross-section. There arefive longitudinal ridges which aredeep on the main (1-3cm thick)stems, but smooth out toward thegrowing tips where the stems are1cm thick. The stems are softlypubescent with jointed, gland-tippedhairs. The main stem branches outto 5-6 main laterals.

Leaves are simple, heart shaped or3-5 lobed. The leaf base is cordateto sagittate, and the leaf tip generallyacuminate. The leaf veins have fivemain laterals arising palmately fromthe attachment of the petiole. Thefirst few leaves emerging after theseed leaves are often irregular inshape. Given optimum growingconditions mature leaves range insize from 10-30cm in length and 8-35cm in width. The edges are entireor irregularly dentate (mostly with theAfrican subspecies) to stronglyserrated (more common in the Asiansubspecies). The leaf surface iscovered in dense soft hairs(pubescent) and the foliage has astrong musky odour.

A distinctive feature of all species ofLagenaria is the presence of twopore-like glands at the junction ofthe leaf and petiole (Heiser, 1979).These extra-floral nectaries andglandular leaf teeth are common inmembers of the Cucurbitaceae, andare the source of a persistent musky

smell. Extra-floral nectaries aregenerally regarded as a primitivepollination feature that function toattract beetles and other insects thatswarm over the plant to feed,incidentally carrying pollen from thestaminate to pistillate flowers. Heiser(1979) showed beetles to beresponsible for most of the pollinationof gourds he grew. It has beensuggested that these glands andglandules may also have a role insecreting substances, such ascucurbitacins, that deter mammalianherbivores from eating the plant(Metcalf and Rhodes, 1990).

The tendrils are modified leaves andthey arise from the leaf axils. Thetendrils are bifid and assist the plantto attach itself for climbing. They arevery strong and easily support heavygourds. One type of New Zealandgourd has been observed to produce3 or 4 tendrils from each leaf axil(Maingay, 1985).

The flowers are solitary and borneon long peduncles arising from theleaf axils. Peduncles are usuallysolitary in leaf axils but are quite oftenpaired. The bottle gourd is usuallymonoecious although it is sometimesdescribed as being dioecious(Chakravarty, 1990).

The white flowers of the bottle gourd open inthe evening.

14 New Zealand Garden Journal, 2003, Vol.6 (1)

Occasional unisexual plants can beproduced, although I have neverobserved this. Hermaphrodite flowerswith both stamens and ovaries aswell as flowers with 4 or 6 petalshave been reported (Maingay, 1985).Maingay suggests this may havebeen an aberrant polyploid form, butagain, I have not observed this in thesix years I have been growing bottlegourds.

The staminate flowers are carried onpeduncles 10-35cm long and 3-5mmthick. The flowers are held above thefoliage and present a spectacularsight on a midsummer evening. Thefive petals join to form a bell-shapedcorolla that is united with the calyxto form a perianth tube. The calyxlobes alternate with the petals. Thesesepals can vary in length, width andapices. They can sometimes bealmost leaf-like in appearance. Thecalyx edges also have glandulesalong them. The petals are obovatewith finely undulate margins. Theirapices vary from blunt to acute, andare fringed to entire. A densepubescence is longer toward themid-rib of each petal. The corollacan vary in diameter from 5-14cm,with the Asian subspecies generallyproducing larger flowers in the 7-14cm range, while theAfrican/American subspecies arewithin the 5-12cm range. Staminateflowers have 5 stamens. Two pairsare fused forming two double-lobedcompound stamens and theremaining one is single. A nectary,which is found only in staminateflowers, is located at the base of thestamens at the bottom of the perianthtube.

The pistillate flowers are quite distinctfrom the staminate flowers with theinferior ovary showing potential fruitshape early. The interior of the ovaryis divided into 3 locules. The singleshort style terminates in 3 thick bi-lobed stigmas. The peduncles ofpistillate flowers are shorter andthicker than those in staminateflowers, from 2-16cm long and 4-6mm wide.

A ratio of at least 5:1 of male to

female flowers was observed byMaingay (1985). Male flowersgenerally appear several days beforefemale flowers, and the ratio willchange somewhat through theflowering season.

Lagenaria siceraria seed displays awide range of morphological variationand this variation is important fordistinguishing subspecies. The colourof the seed coat varies betweencultivars. Colour ranges from a shadeof pale yellow or white, to brownthrough to dark reddish brown, withdarkest colours being more prevalentin L. siceraria ssp. siceraria. Maingay(1985) utilised Munsell Soil ColourChart (1990) soil colours to describeseed coat colours to good effect.

Presence and absence of ears at theproximal end of the seed is anotherdistinguishing character. Seeds ofsome of the African types lack ears,but have side wings instead. Theseed surface also has lines or trackswhich may be almost absent,prominent, or densely pubescent.The width and length of seed variesbetween cultivars and the seedindex, the ratio of seed width dividedby seed length, is an importantcharacter for distinguishingsubspecies.

Lagenaria siceraria has epigealgermination where the cotyledonsemerge above the seed sowingmedium before the foliage leavesdevelop. A soil temperature of 15 to20° C is required for optimumgermination but some cultivars, inparticular the “New Zealandcultivars”, seem to germinate at lowertemperatures. This may be anadaptive character worthy of furtherinvestigation.

Botanically, the fruit is a pepo orinferior berry. The size and the shapeof fruit vary tremendously betweencultivars. One Japanese cultivar Igrew, L. siceraria var. macrocarpa,produced a mature fruit 50mm longby 30mm wide, but spherical shapedfruit can be up to 2m wide and snaketype fruit can be 3m long. The colourof the fruit can vary from pale or light

green to dark green, and with stripingof different shades of green on somecultivars. Kobiakova (1930) usedfruit colour as a character differencebetween the subspecies, with darkgreen being more prevalent in theAfrican/American subspecies andpale greens in the Asian. Thedistinctive ridged Maranka or dolphincultivar, which has a dark green fruitcolour when fresh, is African in originand exhibits leaf, floral and seedcharacters typical of L. siceraria ssp.siceraria.

ConclusionAll horticultural plants have their storyand the full story of how people usedLagenaria siceraria in Aotearoa, therest of Polynesia and throughout theworld requires many more words.For a fascinating account of theplant’s history I recommend Heiser’sThe Gourd Book (1979), but for nowI will conclude this article bysummarising the gourd’s main usesby M ori in New Zealand.

The first plant propagated from seedby people in New Zealand wasvalued as a food plant. The youngfruit resemble a hairy zucchini andwere cooked in hangi. However, italso provided M ori with a widerange of containers, floats, musicalinstruments, tops and masks.While the Lapita Culture broughtpottery to Western Polynesia, by thetime the latter wave of Polynesianmigrants reached Eastern Polynesiaislands, where sources of suitableclay were in short supply, potterymaking techniques were forgotten.Hence the importance of a plant thatcould annually produce a range ofdifferent sized containers.

The most well known M oricontainers were the water storagegourd (tah wai) and containers forpreserved meat (tah huahua). Thehard shells of the mature fruit werealso used for food bowls, ritualcontainers, floats for fishing nets andto help children to learn to swim,musical instruments, spinning topsand masks. Although I have seen nodirect reference to their use as bailing

FAMILY Cucurbitaceae

SUBFAMILY Cucurbitoideae

TRIBE Benincaseae

GENUS Lagenaria Benincasa Citrullus Luffa

SPECIES L. siceraria L. sphaerica L. brevifolia L. abyssinica L. guineensis L. rufa

SUB - SPECIES L. sicerariassp. siceraria

L. sicerariassp. asiatica

New Zealand Garden Journal, 2003, Vol.6 (1) 15

instruments during canoe trips, thisdoes seem an obvious use. Mediumsized gourds that would fit over thehead were occasionally used asmasks in the same manner as otherPolynesian peoples.

The excellent resonating propertiesof the dried gourd shell is well knownfrom Africa where it is used for arange of flutes, drums and stringedinstruments to India where they are

used as the resonating chamber ofthe sitar and other musicalinstruments. M ori use hue to makeflutes and bullroarers. Bullroarerswere made by firmly attaching a cordthrough the neck of a smaller gourddrilled with one or two holes. Thegourd was whirled through the air onthe end of the cord to create a roaringsound. Dried gourds filled withpebbles were also used as rattles bychildren.

I have come a long way since takingan interest in the hue that M origardeners once grew in theMakotukutuku Valley. There is muchmore to tell, particularly about theethnobotany of the bottle gourd. Fornow it is enough to record for ourhorticultural history, the fact thatLagenaria siceraria was the first plantpeople propagated from seed inAotearoa.

Figure 1. Taxonomic relationships of L. siceraria

Character

Leaf

Flower

Seed

Origin range

Lagenaria siceraria ssp. siceraria

Smooth or unruffled margins, not lobedor rounded-lobed

Corolla diameter 50-120mm; sepals orcalyx lobes short and broad

Usually dark in colour, less than twiceas long as broad

Africa and the Americas

Lagenaria siceraria ssp. asiatica

Saw-toothed on the margins andsharply three- to five-lobed

Corolla diameter 70-140mm; longslender calyx lobes

Light coloured, usually more than twiceas long as broad

Mainly Asia

Table 1. Summary of morphological differences between Lagenaria siceraria subspecies.

16 New Zealand Garden Journal, 2003, Vol.6 (1)

Mike Burtenshaw is a Senior Lecturerin the Natural Resources Centre atthe Open Polytechnic of New Zealand,where he teaches horticulture andenvironment papers as well as a newethnobotany paper. He is currentlyresearching the history andcontemporary cultivation of Lagenariasiceraria in New Zealand. Other

research activities include anexperimental archaeology projectcultivating pre-European kumara toassess yield for effort, and generalresearch into ethnobotany. Mike iskeen to obtain seed of or informationabout Maori, Polynesian, NewGuinean, South-East Asian, and SouthAmerican gourds of ethnic origin.

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