Coyote Melon, Coyote Gourd
Cucurbita palmata
Color: Yellow
Common name: Coyote Gourd, Coyote Melon
Latin name: Cucurbita palmata
Family: CUCURBITACEAE
Height: Low to the ground
Description: Cucurbita palmata is a sprawling vine with the above-the-ground part of the plant rough to the touch usually owing to short, stiff hairs. The stiff, curling yellow flowers are 6-8 cm wide. The plant bears smooth spherical or almost spherical squash fruits 8 to 10 centimeters wide. The fruits ripen from green with greenish-white stripes to bright yellow and then pale gold when the gourd is dry.
Leaf: The dark green, light-veined leaves are sharply palmate with usually five long triangular points.
Range: Southwestern California, Desert, San Joaquin Valley, Central Western California
Habitat: Sandy places
Elevation: < 1300 m.
Flowering time: Apr–Sep
Notes: Cucurbita palmata, a dicot, is an annual or perennial herb that is native to California and is also found outside of California, but is confined to western North America. "The striped, green gourds are fibrous and unpalatable inside, but ground seeds were eaten by native Indians, and the dried gourds were used as rattles in dances. During fall when the melons are ripe and plentiful, the flat, watermelon-like seeds are often found in coyote scat." http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0503.htm#coyote The gourds are often used by artists to make bowels and other decorative arts. Photographed May 2004 on Camp Rock Road and September 2011 near Daggett in San Bernardino County, Calif.
We have an online wildflower field guide that is designed to help you identify desert wildflowers by color, scientific name, region and common name. The pictures are sized to work on the iPod, iPhone, iPad and similar devices. With your iPod or phone you will easily be able to identify wildflowers while in the desert. Links for downloads are on the bottom of the Wildflower Field Guide page.
Photo tips: Most digital point-and-shoot cameras have a macro function - usually symbolized by the icon of a little flower. When you turn on that function, you allow your camera to get closer to the subject, looking into a flower for example. Or getting up close and personal with a bug. More on desert photography.
Mojave Desert Wildflowers - This book is the standard by which all other wildflower books are measured. The author, Jon Mark Stewart, has combined super photography with concise information. This book has an entire color page for each wildflower covered, with a discussion of the wildflower. 210 pages with 200 color photos. More...
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