Species
+

Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.

Anyal, Bottle gourd, Bottle gourd (EN), Butelkürbis

Climate known 57 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Calabash, also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, New Guinea butter bean or Tasmania bean, is a vine which is grown for its fruit. It belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae, is native to tropical Africa, and cultivated across the tropics. It can be either harvested young to be consumed as a vegetable, or harvested mature to be dried and used as a kitchen utensil, beverage container or a musical instrument. When it is fresh, the fruit has a light green smooth skin and white flesh.

Text from Wikipedia, “Calabash”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Lagenaria

Lagenaria is a genus of gourd-bearing vines in the squash family (Cucurbitaceae). Lagenaria contains six species, all of which are indigenous to tropical Africa. The best-known species, the calabash or bottle gourd, L. siceraria, has been domesticated by humans, and has spread beyond Africa. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Lagenaria”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Cucurbitaceae
Described by
(Molina) Standl.
Native to
Gambia, The, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau +19
Wild records
210 in range· 179 open

At a glance

Warmest month
33°C
Mar, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1066mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Aug 182 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to September at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.6 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1066 mm a year, wettest August at 182 mm, driest January at 9 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cucumis bicirrha J.R.Forst.; Cucumis bicirrha J.R.Forst. ex Guill.; Cucumis lagenaria (L.) Dumort.; Cucumis mairei H.Lév.; Cucurbita ciceraria Molina and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to September at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.6 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (755 mm of 1066 mm) falls in May to September. The temperature curve is flat, 3.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1066 mm a year, wettest August at 182 mm, driest January at 9 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1066 mm a year at the habitat, 755 mm of it May to September. Wettest month August at 182 mm, driest January at 9 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 810 mm to 1750 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 12.4 °C, the absolute minimum 9.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 14.0 °C to 22.0 °C), warmest day 32.9 °C in March (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 50 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 28 °C in Aug to 33 °C in Mar; mean night from 19 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Apr. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1066 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 169 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 9.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 42.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°50°42.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)9.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 30–40RH 50–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 169 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C31 / 25–3432 / 25–3733 / 25–3932 / 24–3931 / 24–3730 / 23–3428 / 23–3128 / 23–3029 / 25–3130 / 25–3330 / 25–3530 / 24–34
Night °C19 / 14–2220 / 15–2322 / 16–2423 / 16–2623 / 14–2622 / 12–2421 / 11–2321 / 13–2321 / 15–2321 / 15–2320 / 15–2219 / 14–22
Rain mm9 / 0–29923 / 0–22869 / 5–20275 / 29–200114 / 7–170132 / 0–181155 / 0–240182 / 0–291172 / 4–24483 / 23–21338 / 0–19814 / 0–269
DLI38 / 32–3940 / 34–4240 / 33–4438 / 32–4436 / 29–4133 / 27–3831 / 26–3630 / 26–3933 / 28–4437 / 30–4438 / 30–4036 / 31–38
RH %50 / 34–6751 / 32–6755 / 37–6758 / 46–6960 / 51–6961 / 51–6964 / 50–7066 / 47–7166 / 45–7061 / 47–7054 / 41–7054 / 36–67

Each figure is the median across the 169 grid cells holding the 206 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1571:3661 (11.425, 3.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 169 distinct grid cells holding the 206 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1571:3661 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 11.50_3.125, lapse-corrected +49 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 289 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeGambia, The, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Chad, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda· introduced: Great Britain, Germany, Albania, Romania, East European Russia, Azores, Canary Is., Benin, Burkina, Guinea, Mali, Gabon, Rwanda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Transcaucasus, China South-Central, China Southeast, Korea, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Maluku, Christmas I., Queensland, Fiji, New Caledonia, Easter Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Mexican Pacific Is., Mexico Southwest, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay, Uruguay
Kew's description“climbing annual” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker10.564, 1.319 · in the densest population, 79 records (38% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 210 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 179 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 1121 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 4 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 210 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Lagenaria sicerariaLagenaria sicerariaLagenaria sicerariaLagenaria sicerariaLagenaria sicerariaLagenaria sicerariaLagenaria sicerariaLagenaria siceraria

Photographs: (c) Francisco Farriols Sarabia, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Monics Paredes, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (5).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Lagenaria siceraria, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Cucurbit Grafting
Angela R. Davis, Penelope Perkins‐Veazie, Yoshiteru Sakata, S. López-Galarza (2008) · Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences
An Asian origin for a 10,000-year-old domesticated plant in the Americas
David L. Erickson, Bruce D. Smith, Andrew Clarke, Daniel H. Sandweiss (2005) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
CRC Handbook of Flowering
Abraham H. Halevy (2019)
Effect of Salinity on Yield, Fruit Quality, Leaf Gas Exchange, and Mineral Composition of Grafted Watermelon Plants
Guiseppe Colla, Youssef Roupahel, Mariateresa Cardarelli, E. Rea (2006) · HortScience
Effect of different rootstock on plant growth, yield and quality of watermelon
H. Yetisir, Nebahat Sarı (2003) · Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture
Initial formation of an indigenous crop complex in eastern North America at 3800 B.P
Bruce D. Smith, Richard A. Yarnell (2009) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Nutritive value of some Cucurbitaceae oilseeds from different regions in Cameroon
MB Achu, Élie Fokou, Clergé Tchiégang, Martin Fotso (2005) · AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
Transoceanic drift and the domestication of African bottle gourds in the Americas
Logan Kistler, Álvaro Montenegro, Bruce D. Smith, John Gifford (2014) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The Cucurbits of Mediterranean Antiquity: Identification of Taxa from Ancient Images and Descriptions
Jules Janick, Harry S. Paris, David Parrish (2007) · Annals of Botany
The Preceramic Las Vegas Culture of Coastal Ecuador
Karen E. Stothert (1985) · American Antiquity
Reassessing Coxcatlan Cave and the early history of domesticated plants in Mesoamerica
Bruce D. Smith (2005) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 194 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.