- Winter melon
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"Kundol" redirects here. For the Lake, see Kundol Lake.
Winter Melon 
Nearly mature winter melon Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae (unranked): Angiosperms (unranked): Eudicots (unranked): Rosids Order: Cucurbitales Family: Cucurbitaceae Subfamily: Cucurbitoideae Tribe: Benincaseae Subtribe: Benincasinae Genus: Benincasa
SaviSpecies: B. hispida Binomial name Benincasa hispida
Thunb.Synonyms Camolenga Post & Kuntze
The winter melon, also called white gourd, ash gourd, or "fuzzy melon", is a vine grown for its very large fruit, eaten as a vegetable when mature. It is the only member of the genus Benincasa. The fruit is fuzzy when young. The immature melon has thick white flesh that is sweet when eaten. By maturity, the fruit loses its hairs and develops a waxy coating, giving rise to the name wax gourd, and providing a long shelf life. The melon may grow as large as 80 cm in length. Although the fruit is referred to as a "melon," the fully grown crop is not sweet. Originally cultivated in Southeast Asia, the winter melon is now widely grown in East Asia and South Asia as well.
Winter melon is also a common name for members of the Inodorus cultivar group of the muskmelon (Cucumis melo L), more commonly known as casaba or honeydew melons.
Contents
Uses
In China and Taiwan, the winter melon is used to make soup in the same way as daikon radishes, and is often combined with pork or pork/beef bones. In North India and Pakistan, the vegetable is used to prepare a candy called Petha. In South Indian cuisine, it is used to make curries. Occasionally, it is used to produce a fruit drink which has a very distinctive taste. It is usually sweetened with caramelized sugar, which enhances the taste. In Southeast Asia, the drink is widely marketed as winter melon tea. In China, the winter melon is dried and sweetened and eaten at New Year festivals. In China and Taiwan, it is one of the basis of mooncake for the yearly Moon Festival.
The winter melon requires very warm weather to grow but can be kept through the winter much like winter squash. The winter melon can typically be stored for 12 months. The melons are used in stir fry or to make winter melon soup, which is often served in the scooped out melon, which has been intricately decorated by scraping off the waxy coating.
The shoots, tendrils, and leaves of the plant may also be eaten as greens.
Vernacular names
A small bowl of Chinese winter melon soup
A winter melon used as a serving bowl for winter melon soup- Arabic: Battikh بطيخ
- Assamese: komora
- Bengali: চাল কুমড়া chal kumṛa (lit. "thatch pumpkin")
- Burmese: kyauk pha-yon thee
- Chinese: 冬瓜 dōngguā (lit. "winter melon")
- English: ash gourd, (Chinese) winter melon, fuzzy melon, green pumpkin, wax gourd, white gourd, Hairy Melon
- French: courge cireuse, courgette velue (lit. "hairy zucchini")
- German: Wachskürbis, Wintermelone (Benincasa hispida)
- Hindi: पेठा peṭhā, pethakaddu
- Ilocano: tabungaw
- Indonesian: beligo, kundur
- Japanese: とうがん tōgan (冬瓜, lit. "winter melon")
- Kannada: ಬೂದುಗುಂಬಳ booduguMbaLa
- Kapampangan: Kundul
- Khmer: TraLach
- Konkani: kuvalo
- Korean: Dongah (동아, lit. "winter melon")
- Malay: kundur
- Malayalam: കുമ്പളങ്ങ kumbalanga
- Marathi: कोहळा kohḷa
- Portuguese: abóbora d’água (lit. "water pumpkin"), comalenge
- Sinhala:පුහුල් Puhul
- Taiwanese: dangguev (冬瓜, lit. "winter melon")
- Tamil: neer poosanikai (நீர்பூசனி)/வெள்ளைப் பூசனி/கல்யாணப் பூசனி
- Tagalog: kundol
- Telugu: boodida gummadikaya (బూడిద గుమ్మడి)
- Thai: ฟักเขียว fak khiaw (lit. "green squash")
- Tulu: ಕರ್ಕು೦ಬುಡ karkumbuda
- Urdu: پیٹھہ, peṭhā
- Vietnamese: bí đao
- Mizo: Maipawl
See also
- Double steaming for a Cantonese dish called Winter melon urn (冬瓜盅).
- Sweetheart cake, a famous sweet Chinese pastry made with winter melon.
External links
- PROTAbase on Benincasia hispida
- Multilingual taxonomic information from the University of Melbourne
- Benincasa hispida
- Benincasa hispida Click on Benincasa in the list on the lower left.
Gallery
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Winter melon.
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Seeds of winter melon, each seed is about ¾ cm long.
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Winter Melon soup
Melon Bailan melon • Bitter melon • Canary melon • Cantaloupe • Citron melon • Citrullus ecirrhosus • Cucumeropsis mannii • Galia • Hami melon • Honeydew • Horned melon • Melon ball • Montreal melon • Muskmelon • Paddy melon • Piel de Sapo • Santa Claus melon • Sprite melon • Sugar melon • Sun Melon • Watermelon • Watermelon steak • Winter melon • Yubari King
Categories:- Fruit vegetables
- Melons
- Cucurbitaceae
- Chinese ingredients
- Philippine cuisine
- Medicinal plants
- Monotypic plant genera
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