Family: Cucurbitaceae

Ipu is a an annual climbing vine with large hairy lobed dark green leaves and two-branched tendrils. White trumpet-shaped flowers bloom at night and when pollinated become hard shell gourds of various shapes and sizes. Fruit are light green when young and mature to yellow-brown. Some varieties produce more rounded calabash gourds and others are more cylindrical bottle gourds. Ipu loves to grow along the ground, along fences, or upon trellises.

Some varieties are edible, while others are too bitter to eat but great for traditional medicine. The fruit of the ipu will eventually dry out leaving a hard shell with just seeds inside. These dried gourds become waterproof and can be used for water, food, fishing gear, musical instruments, cultural attire and ritual. The amazing utility of the ipu gourd harkens back to its genus name Lagenaria, which stems from the Greek lagenos meaning a flask.

Ipu used to be a common sight where people live, but now it is only rarely seen in cultivation. This vine does best in dry regions when grown on some kind of structure, especially if you want to utilize the gourd. Today, many don’t bother growing ipu vines as they have many potential problems that need to be monitored for including: aphids, cucumber beetles, squash bugs, stink bugs, cutworms, pickleworm, squash vine borers, anthracnose, fusarium wilt, bacterial wilt, downy mildew, powdery mildew, and blights. Most notably invasive fruit flies will damage the gourd fruits, which means farmers need to cover new fruits in mosquito netting and may need to rotate fruits daily depending on what the gourd will be used for.

Even though there may be pests and diseases trying to take down your ipu, it doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying to grow! If you’d like to try, be sure to start seeds at the beginning of the rainy season so the plant can mature in the hot dry summer about 6 months later. Ipu loves well-drained soils, full sun with light afternoon shade, and consistent moisture. Make sure plants are 3′ apart when growing on supports and 4-6′ apart when growing along ground. If you are growing the vine for its gourds, be sure to hand pollinate at night to improve successful fruit set and be sure to grow vines on support structures that will prevent the gourds from touching the ground.

Plant Uses:

• Cultural significance
• Edible
• Ornamental
• Privacy / screening
• Specimen

Plant Dangers:

• No dangers