Cucumber ( Cucumis sativus )

Fruit Warehouse | Cucumber ( Cucumis sativus ) | Having an enclosed seed and developing from a flower, botanically speaking, cucumbers are classified as fruits. cucumbers are usually more than 90% water. A few varieties of cucumber are parthenocarpic, the blossoms creating seedless fruit without pollination. Pollination for these varieties degrades the quality. In the United States, these are usually grown in greenhouses, where bees are excluded. 

The plant is a creeping vine the which bears edible cylindrical fruit when RIPE. There are three main varieties of cucumber: "slicing", "pickling", and "burpless". The cucumber is originally from India but is now grown on most Continents. The cucumber is a creeping vine That roots in the ground and Grows up trellises or other supporting frames, wrapping around supports with thin, spiraling tendrils. The plant has large leaves form a canopy That over the fruit.

Most cucumber varieties, however, are seeded and require pollination. Thousands of hives of honey bees are Annually Carried to cucumber fields just before bloom for this purpose. Cucumbers may also be pollinated by bumblebees and bee Several other species. Symptoms of inadequate pollination include fruit abortion and misshapen fruit.

Traditional varieties Produce male blossoms first, then female, in about equivalent numbers. New gynoecious hybrid cultivars Produce almost all female blossoms. It is also listed Among the foods of ancient Ur, and the legend of Gilgamesh describes people eating cucumbers. According to Pliny the Elder (The Natural History, Book XIX, Chapter 23), the Ancient Greeks grew cucumbers, and there were different varieties in Italy, Africa, and modern-day Serbia.