Echinocystis, Echinocstis lobta. People call it the “mad cucumber.”
An annual plant from the pumpkin family. The stems are up to 6 m long, succulent, thin, very branched at the nodes, short-haired, climbing with the help of tightly twisted branched three-to-four-parted tendrils.
The leaves are alternate, with long petioles, pale green, thin, glabrous, rough, deeply notched at the base, some modified into tendrils. The leaves are round or ovate in outline, 5-10 cm long and wide.
The flowers are almost white, have a delicate honey aroma, and are collected in inflorescences. Blooms in June - September.
The fruits are broadly ovoid pumpkins, 1-6 cm long, densely covered with prickly bristles, initially bluish-green, watery, and when ripe they dry out and open at the top; they contain two mucilaginous seeds inside in two coarsely hairy nests. In rainy summers, when the fruits ripen, they accumulate a lot of liquid, burst under its pressure, and the seeds are shot out in different directions. The fruits ripen in August - October.