There isn’t just one plant known as a gourd. The term takes in lots of vegetables from pumpkins, cucumbers and squash to vines that produce hard ornamental fruits that rattle when shaken.
Many bean-like vegetables are also known as gourds. The vegetable luffa or vegetable sponge (Luffa acutangula) is also known as a gourd — but more about that later (see box, page 45).
This article, however, focuses on ornamental gourds () grown and
