Telfairia occidentalis
From Gardenology.org - Plant Encyclopedia and Gardening Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search| Telfairia occidentalis | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plant Info | ||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Telfairia occidentalis Hook.f. | ||||||||||||||
Telfairia occidentalis is a tropical vine grown in West Africa as a leaf vegetable and for its edible seeds. Common names for the plant include fluted gourd, fluted pumpkin, iroko, and ugu. Ugwu is also a nigerian surname particular with people from Enugu state in eastern Nigeria.
The plant is dioecious, perennial, and drought-tolerant. It is usually grown trellised.
The young shoots and leaves of the female plant are the main ingredient of Nigerian edikang ikong soup.
The large (up to 5 cm), dark red seed is rich in fat and protein, and can be eaten whole, ground into powder for another kind of soup, or made into a fermented porridge.
The fruit of the plant is large, reaching 13 kg, but inedible.
