How do you recognise Cucumber (Cucumis sativus)?

Leaf

Hervé GoËau, Tela Botanica · CC BY-SA 2.0

Cucumber

Cucumis sativus L.

Also known as: Gherkin

Family: Cucurbitaceae

Stems 1 to 3 m long

Grown in vegetable gardens, under cover or outdoors

Flowering: June – September

Full sun

Not hardy, frost-sensitive, grown as an annual

❓ How do you recognise this plant?

The gherkin and the cucumber are the same vegetable: the gherkin is simply harvested very young, before it is fully developed. When young, their heart-shaped foliage and trailing stems look very alike — both are cucurbits. The fruit clearly tells them apart once formed.

🍃 Leaves

Large, palmate with 3-5 lobes, rough, bright green

🌸 Flowers

Yellow; plant generally monoecious (separate male and female flowers)

🍎 Fruits

Elongated berry, green, with crisp, watery flesh; harvested immature (gherkin) or more developed (cucumber)

🪵 Bark

Annual herbaceous plant, trailing or climbing, with tendrils.

🗺️ Distribution

Native to Asia; grown throughout France

🐝 Value for pollinators

Honey-rich flowers visited by bees, essential for fruit formation in non-parthenocarpic varieties

✂️ Horticultural uses

Vegetable garden crop grown for its fruit, eaten raw in salads or pickled (gherkin)

⚠️ Possible toxicity

Fruit edible; in rare cases (stressed plants or those resulting from cross-pollination with ornamental cucurbits), the fruit can accumulate very bitter, toxic cucurbitacins — never eat a bitter-tasting cucumber.