Sponge Gourd
घेवड़ाபீர்கங்காய்घोसाळी
Luffa aegyptiaca Mill.
- light
- Full sun
- water
- —
- tall
- 15 m
- wide
- —
Cucurbitaceae
Also called Native Towel-gourd, Vegetable sponge, Loofah, Wild Pumpkin, Luffa Sponge
Formerly Bryonia cheirophylla, Cucurbita multiflora, Luffa arabum, Luffa clavata, and 26 more
When it flowers
Flowers June to February in the tropics.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Climbing annualKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- Seasonally dry tropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Indian SubcontinentKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from Plants For A Future, one source
- Height
- 15 mRead from Plants For A Future, one source
Not known yet: spread, water, flowers, coldest it survives, heat, hottest it survives.
Grow it with
Suggested by a rule, not by a gardener: same climate (kew), flowering when this plant does not (inaturalist), and a different shape.
Arabian jasmineFlowers March to May, when this does not
Barbados gooseberryFlowers March to May, when this does not
Black-eyed Susan vineFlowers March to May, when this does not
Blue dazeFlowers March to May, when this does not
Bush Morning GloryFlowers March to May, when this does not
Calabur treeFlowers March to May, when this does not
In other languages (12)
- Chinese (China)
- 丝瓜, 水瓜
- Arabic
- ليف مصري, إسفنج نباتي
- Russian
- Люффа цилиндрическая
- Chinese
- 絲瓜, 香瓜, 丝瓜络
- root
- laingsaz, lau-tziu, tochon
- Korean
- 수세미오이
- Portuguese
- Bucha-vegetal
- Japanese
- ヘチマ, 糸瓜, 天糸瓜
- Thai
- บวบหอม
- Spanish
- estropajo, Musú
- Indonesian
- Blustru
- Finnish
- pesusienikurkku
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-26, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- Plants For A Future, read 2026-10-26, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, Public domain
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- 3D model: Luffa aegyptiaca (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.