Plant Identification Learning Module:
Vegetables
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus)
The cucumber plant is vining with large, lobed, triangular, green, bristly leaves and long petioles. Fruits are elongated, cylindrical, yellow-green to dark green and either spiny or smooth. Cucumbers are eaten raw or pickled. Size is variable, depending on variety. Flowers are male or female, small, yellow and somewhat cupped. The female flower produces the fruit and has a tiny cucumber-like appendage which is the undeveloped ovary. The flowers and fruit develop in the leaf axil, where the leaves join the stem. Seeds are creamy-white, flat, buttonhole shaped, tapering at both ends and about 3 times longer than wide.
Purdue
Stephen R. King, Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A&M University
Photo courtesy of Shannah Pace
