Tuesday Buffalo Gourd Blogging

by Cheryl Rofer

Last year, I bought a packet of buffalo gourd (Cucurbita foetidissima) seeds. Buffalo gourd (which I've previously known as coyote melon) is a luxurious plant I've always wanted in my yard. It is a perennial curcibit, spreading its vines of leathery gray-green leaves over an area tens of feet across, with curcibit-yellow flowers, smaller than those of summer squash or pumpkin, that result in little yellow gourds.

I planted some seeds last year in a place that I particularly wanted my buffalo gourd vine: very sandy, overlooking my rose and lilac bushes, to cover an area that seemed unlikely to support much else. Nothing.

Earlier this year, I sprouted some buffalo gourd seeds and planted them in multiple places around the yard. Nothing. I planted a few in flower pots in the house. They didn't get enough sun and became very leggy and so soft that they died the first day in the sun.

I sprouted more seeds and planted them in pots outside. The cotyledons, those funny-looking leaves that first emerge from the seed, were bitten off, I think by the local towhees. But one plant survived. It is still in the pot during these dry days, basil below and parsley above.

I also planted a few seeds in an indoor pot and put it in the sunniest spot in the house. Two of them came up and did quite well. I put them outside to harden up, and they did well until the towhees found them. You can see the lesser damage to the cotyledons on the larger one; they were totally bitten off the smaller one. I suppose I could put this pot outside now, but I am wary.

It's been horrendously dry for at least a month now. I drove through a rainstorm yesterday that ended just north of my house. These two plants are doing reasonably well, and the third may come along. I'm going to wait until the rains come to plant them in that sandy place.

My googling shows that some think there may be all sorts of uses for buffalo gourd. I'll be happy if those gray-green leaves take over that area above the roses.