Editing Calabash (section)

{{short description|Species of bottle gourd plant}}
{{About|the gourd|the winter squash with the same English name|Calabaza|the trees|Crescentia|other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{speciesbox
|name  = Calabash
|image = Courge encore verte.jpg
|image_caption = Green calabash growing on its vine
|genus = Lagenaria
|species = siceraria
|authority = ([[Juan Ignacio Molina|Molina]]) [[Paul Carpenter Standley|Standl.]]
|synonyms_ref = <ref>{{cite web |url=http://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:134809-2#synonyms |title=''Lagenaria siceraria'' (Molina) Standl. |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2017 |website=Plants of the World Online |publisher=Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |access-date=2 December 2020}}</ref>
|synonyms = {{collapsible list|
*''Cucumis bicirrha'' <small>J.R.Forst. ex Guill.</small>
*''Cucumis lagenaria'' <small>(L.) Dumort.</small>
*''Cucumis mairei'' <small>H.Lév.</small>
*''Cucurbita ciceraria'' <small>Molina</small>
*''Cucurbita idololatrica'' <small>Willd.</small>
*''Cucurbita lagenaria'' <small>L.</small>
*''Cucurbita leucantha'' <small>Duchesne</small>
*''Cucurbita longa'' <small>W.M.Fletcher</small>
*''Cucurbita pyriformis'' <small>M.Roem.</small>
*''Cucurbita siceraria'' <small>Molina</small>
*''Cucurbita vittata'' <small>Blume</small>
*''Lagenaria bicornuta'' <small>Chakrav.</small>
*''Lagenaria cochinchinensis'' <small>M.Roem.</small>
*''Lagenaria hispida'' <small>Ser.</small>
*''Lagenaria idolatrica'' <small>(Willd.) Ser.</small>
*''Lagenaria lagenaria'' <small>(L.) Cockerell</small>
*''Lagenaria leucantha'' <small>Rusby</small>
*''Lagenaria microcarpa'' <small>Naudin</small>
*''Lagenaria siceraria'' f. ''depressa'' <small>(Ser.) M.Hiroe</small>
*''Lagenaria siceraria'' var. ''laevisperma'' <small>Millán</small>
*''Lagenaria siceraria'' f. ''microcarpa'' <small>(Naudin) M.Hiroe</small>
*''Lagenaria vittata'' <small>Ser.</small>
*''Lagenaria vulgaris'' <small>Ser.</small>
*''Lagenaria vulgaris'' var. ''clavata'' <small>Ser.</small>
*''Lagenaria vulgaris'' var. ''gourda'' <small>Ser.</small>
*''Pepo lagenarius'' <small>Moench</small>
*''Trochomeria rehmannii'' <small>Cogn.</small>
}}}}

'''Calabash''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|æ|l|ə|b|æ|ʃ}};<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/calabash |title=calabash noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes &#124; Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at |publisher=Oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com |date= |access-date=2022-05-06}}</ref> ''Lagenaria siceraria''), also known as '''bottle gourd''',<ref>{{PLANTS|id=LASI|taxon=Lagenaria siceraria|access-date=22 January 2016}}</ref> '''white-flowered gourd''',<ref name=BSBI07>{{BSBI 2007 |access-date=2014-10-17}}</ref> '''long melon''', '''birdhouse gourd''',<ref>{{cite web|date=2009-04-25|title=Grow Birdhouse Gourds|url=https://www.finegardening.com/article/grow-birdhouse-gourds|access-date=2021-07-25|website=FineGardening|language=en-US}}</ref> '''New Guinea bean''', '''New Guinea butter bean''', '''Tasmania bean''',<ref name="Cucuzza">{{cite web | url=http://www.thekitchn.com/ingredient-spotlight-cucuzza-s-94464 | title=Ingredient Spotlight: Cucuzza ("Googootz") | first=Kathryn | last=Hill | date=1 September 2009 | website=The Kitchn }}</ref> and '''opo squash''', is a [[vine]] grown for its fruit. It can be either harvested young to be consumed as a [[vegetable]], or harvested mature to be dried and used as a utensil, [[container]], or a [[musical instrument]]. When it is fresh, the fruit has a light green smooth skin and white flesh.

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. Rounder varieties are typically called '''calabash gourds'''. 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 Asia to Africa, Europe, and the Americas in the course of [[human migration]],<ref name="pmid16352716" /> or by seeds floating across the oceans inside the gourd. It has been proven to have been globally domesticated (and existed in the [[New World]]) during the [[Pre-Columbian era]].

There is sometimes confusion when discussing "calabash" because the name is shared with the unrelated calabash tree (''[[Crescentia cujete]]''), whose hard, hollow fruits are also used to make utensils, containers, and musical instruments.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Price |first=Sally |date=1982 |title=When is a calabash not a calabash |journal=New West Indian Guide |pages=56:69–82}}</ref>