As I took a walk around my neighborhood the other day, I saw a long trellis with sponge gourd and calabash. Both gourds are very common vegetables in Taiwan. I did not know there are so many usages for the calabash until now. It is interesting to learn those facts.
前幾天我在附近的社區裡散步時，看到一個長長的瓜架有絲瓜及瓠瓜。 絲瓜及瓠瓜是台灣非常常見的蔬菜。 直到現在才知道葫蘆的用途如此之多。 活到老學到老，很高興能長些有趣的知識。
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Information/Facts
| Family 科 | Scientific Name 學名 | Origin 原產地 |
|---|---|---|
| Cucurbitaceae 葫蘆科 | Lagenaria siceraria | southern Africa |
- Other common names include: bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, New Guinea bean and Tasmania bean.
- The plant produces night blooming white flowers. The male flowers have long peduncles and the females have short ones with an ovary in the shape of the fruit.
- Calabash fruits have a variety of shapes: they can be huge and rounded, small and bottle shaped, or slim and serpentine, and they can grow to be over a metre long.
- The gourd was one of the world’s first cultivated plants grown not primarily for food, but for use as containers.
- The bottle gourd may have been carried from Africa to Asia, Europe, and the Americas in the course of human migration, or by seeds floating across the oceans inside the gourd. It has been proven to have existed in the New World prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus.
- Hollowed-out and dried calabashes are a very typical utensil in households across West Africa. They are used to clean rice, carry water, and as food containers. Calabashes are also used in making different types of instruments in different parts of Africa. The calabash is also used in the manufacture of puppets.
- In China the hulu is an ancient symbol for health. Calabash is sweet in taste, smooth in nature and non-toxic. Its vines, whiskers, leaves, flowers, seeds, and shells can be used as medicine to treat many diseases. Dried calabash is also used as a container for liquid, usually wine or medicine. It is good for storing medicine. Because it has a strong sealing performance, moisture is not easy to enter, and it is easy to keep the medicine dry without damage and deterioration. In ancient times, calabash was an important raw material for making musical instruments. In addition to instruments such as sheng (reedpipe) and yu, calabash can also be used as a resonance box for stringed instruments or plucked instruments.
- The calabash is used as a resonator in many string instruments in India.
- In the Philippines dried calabash gourds are one of the materials from which the traditional headgear known as the salakot is commonly made.
- The gourd can be dried and used to smoke pipe tobacco.
- The gourd is used traditionally to administer enemas.
- 葫蘆瓜一般指瓠瓜。其他常見名稱包括：葫蘆，白花葫蘆，長瓜，新幾內亞豆和塔斯馬尼亞豆。
- 瓠瓜生岀夜間綻放的白花。 雄花有長的花梗，雌花有短花梗，果形為子房。
- 瓠瓜果實具有多種形狀：它們可以是大而圓的，小而瓶狀的，或者纖細而蜿蜒的，它們可以長到一米多。
- 瓠瓜是世界上最早種植的植物之一，其生長目的不僅是為了食物，而是用作容器。
- 瓠瓜可能是在人類遷徙過程中從非洲運往亞洲，歐洲和美洲的，也可能是種子在瓠瓜內部漂浮穿越大洋。 事實證明，克里斯托弗·哥倫布（Christopher Columbus）到來之前，它已經存在於新世界中。
- 中空的乾瓠瓜是西非家庭非常典型的器具。 它們用於清潔大米，運送水和用作食品容器。瓠瓜還用於在非洲不同地區製造不同類型的樂器。在非洲瓠瓜還用於製造木偶。
- 在中國，瓠瓜是健康的古老象徵。瓠瓜味甘，性平滑無毒，其蔓、須、葉、花、子、殼均可入藥，醫治多種疾病。 乾的瓠瓜還用作容器裝液體，通常是酒或藥品。裝藥特別好，因為它有很強的密封性能，潮氣不易進入，容易保持藥物的干燥，不致損壞變質。古代，瓠瓜是製造樂器的重要原料。除了笙、竽等簧管樂器外，瓠瓜還可以做弦樂器或彈撥樂器的共鳴箱。
- 葫蘆在印度的許多弦樂器中用作諧振器。
- 在菲律賓，瓠瓜是通常被稱為薩拉科（salakot）的傳統頭飾的製造材料之一。
- 瓠瓜可以乾燥後用於抽煙。
- 瓠瓜傳統上用於灌腸。
Related post: Sponge gourd 絲瓜
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