Gourds Delight
by Robert Bales
Title
Gourds Delight
Artist
Robert Bales
Medium
Photograph - Photo
Description
Found this nice display of gourds at a farmer market.
A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly Cucurbita and Lagenaria or the fruit of the two genera of Bignoniaceae "calabash tree", Crescentia and Amphitecna.
The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. Likely one of the earliest domesticated types of plants, subspecies of the bottle gourd, Lagenaria siceraria, have been discovered in archaeological sites dating from as early as 13,000 BC. Gourds have had numerous uses throughout history, including as tools, musical instruments, objects of art, film, and food.
Gourd is occasionally used to describe crop plants in the family Cucurbitaceae, like pumpkins, cucumbers, squash, luffa, and melons. More specifically, gourd refers to the fruits of plants in the two Cucurbitaceae genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita or also to their hollow, dried-out shell. A gourd can also have a hard shell when dehydrated.
There are many different gourds worldwide. The main plants referred to as gourds include several species from the Cucurbita genus (mostly native to North America, including the Malabar gourd and turban squash), Crescentia cujete (the tree gourd or calabash tree, native to the American tropics) and Lagenaria siceraria (bottle gourd).[4][5] Other plants with gourd in their name include the luffa gourd (likely domesticated in Asia), which includes several species from the Luffa genus, as well as the wax gourd, snake gourd, teasel gourd, hedgehog gourd, buffalo gourd/coyote gourd. The bitter melon/balsam apple/balsam pear is also sometimes referred to as a gourd.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Uploaded
December 27th, 2017
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Viewed 882 Times - Last Visitor from Cupertino, CA on 04/19/2024 at 6:47 AM
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Comments (19)
Adrienne Wilson
I love gourds and I can't wait...almost that time of year. What a wonderful collection of colors, shapes and textures. Love it!!
Robert Bales replied:
thanks so much, Adrienne for the nice comments and it will not be long until this year's crop is ready!!
Debby Pueschel
Autumn is soon here! Gorgeous shot. Congratulations on your feature in 500 Views. FL
Robert Bales replied:
Thanks, Debby for the wonderful comment, and feature, and congrats!! I sure wish it would hurry up!!
Emmy Vickers
What a delight this is. Great capture. Such variety and bright colors. Nicely captured Robert! l/v
Robert Bales replied:
Thanks Emmy for the nice comments and the LV!! I did bright them up with HD filter.