Bush Cucumber Wanted

[Santalum]

Cucumis melo sp. agrestis - Anybody with any help on this one? Have many different native food seeds to swap of generally enhanced genetics (based on selection only). Or willing to pay good dollars if that is preferred. Thanks in advanced. My email is info@australianuts.com

Aaron
www.australianuts.com

[eataust]

You and everyone else ... I've seen so many people looking for this but no actual answers!! I assume it must exist somewhere but where ... ??

[roughbarked]

This plant exists in the arid inland parts of Australia. You'll need to look for low flat country which gets occasional flooding.

[eataust]

I was sorta hoping for a nursery to stock it :)

[roughbarked]

give me time and a working vehicle..

[eataust]

Does anyone have a good photo of what it looks like in the wild?

[roughbarked]

Does anyone have a good photo of what it looks like in the wild?

if you are looking for "bush cucumber" you must first realise that this is the wrong name.
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/senior/v ... cucum2.htm





Cucumis melo sp. agrestis is a trailing type., it isn't a bush cucumber type.


It looks for all the world like an apple cucumber, most of the time..

[roughbarked]

Does anyone have a good photo of what it looks like in the wild?

if you are looking for "bush cucumber" you must first realise that this is the wrong name.
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/senior/v ... cucum2.htm





Cucumis melo sp. agrestis is a trailing type., it isn't a bush cucumber type.


It looks for all the world like an apple cucumber, most of the time..

Note that most references for this plant are from Africa.

[planthunter]

Hi Santalum,

Unfortunately I have no Cucumis melo sp. agrestis seed yet, hopefully I will be able to source some from South Africa. Apparently the African species is almost identical to the Australian one. I'll believe it when I see it!

Seeing your post reminded me that I sent you 2 pm's but got no reply. It's possible that I sent them to cyberspace in error though.

Do you have any seed of your broadleaved Marsdenia australis available to swop or to sell if you prefer? If you wish to swop, I have viable seed of narrow to medium leaved Marsenia australis and Acacia victoriae.

Good luck in your search.

Alan,

[roughbarked]

To my knowledge cucumis melo sp. agrestis is an African species.

There is no indication in my readings on this to suggest that our species is different.

[Thomas B]

http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=gn&name=Cucumis

This suggests that the Ulcardo melon is a possible native.
There are many other plants in a similar situation, for example the native thornapple (Datura sp.)

[roughbarked]

There are varying definitions to native.. one may be that to our knowledge it was here when we arrived. However many things were out here before we arrived.. ie: steel axes arrived far inland before a white man ever trod there.

How you may ask?

Well a good axe is easily worth a wife in trade and early white settlers needs were thus fulfilled.. The axes were traded further inland by Aboriginal people.

For a plant to possibly be native it must be definitely different from species on neighbouring landmasses. For example the Adansonia species in Australia clearly distinguish as separate species from those found across the Indian Ocean.

To my knowledge there are still those adhering to the belief that our Caltrops is a native species. There are also many who don't.

[klintj]

think you are confusing "native" with "endemic" - endemic tends to refer to it being local but nowhere else, whereas native suggests it naturally occurs here but possibly could be natvie to another country as well.

Endemic can be native but native isn't necessarily endemix.

Cheers,
Clint

[roughbarked]

Australia has been an Island for a very long time.

We basically have two types of plants:..
Those that have been here since we split from gondawanaland and have evolved separately from all other species on Earth though still belonging to the same families.
The others are interlopers. Thes have arrived here via various methods of transport not long enough ago to have been able to have evolved as separate species.

These are somewhat naturalised but no way does it actually make them endemic to Australia.

Many such plants have been brought in by our very selves.. Do we consider these native?

I suggest that we do not..

We may refer to them as naturalised weeds otherwise.

[Thomas B]

What about animals that came across on land bridges or colonised millions of years ago but arrived by drifting on ocean currents etc, and have become an integral part of our ecosystems. I give the native Boab, Adansonia gregorii as an example, as it is sufficiently different from any of the Madagascar species or the African species. It has also evolved to suit our conditions (the shells of the pods are much more fragile as there are no native monkeys, like those which crack the hard cases of African species to reach the pith). These are unquestionably native. A native plant is any species which has not been introduced by man. Thus the peregrine falcon is native to both America and Australia, but the tamarind, introduced by Macassan fishermen to the top end before the arrival of white man, is not.