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Telfairia occidentalis
Cucurbitaceae FAMILY

Telfairia occidentalis

Telfairia occidentalis

Edibility
4/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitClimber
GrowthFast

Fluted pumpkin is a plant of the lowland, humid tropics, where it is found at elevations up to 1,000 metres[1, 2]. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 21 - 30°c, but can tolerate 19 - 38°c[2]. The plant can survive temperatures down to about 5°c[2]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 1,900 - 2,200mm, but tolerates 1,500 - 2,700mm[2]. Succeeds in shade or full sun[3]. Tolerant of a wide range of soils[4, 3], though a humus-rich, moist, fertile soil gives best yields[3]. Prefers a pH in the range 5 - 6, tolerating 4.5 - 7[2]. Established plants are drought resistant, though yields are greatly reduced in times of drought[4, 3]. Fluted pumpkin grows fast in the warm, humid tropics, producing edible leaves in the rainy season and at the beginning of the dry season, for a period of 6 - 10 months[5]. The plant can be managed as a short-term perennial when grown on well-drained soils, slightly shaded and well mulched. On soggy soils and in sunlit spots it can only be grown as an annual. Female plants are usually grown for their edible young shoots since males do not produce many of these[3]. The first harvest of these shoots occurs about 2 - 3 months after sowing the seed[3]. Up to 15 harvests may be obtained during the following 120 - 160 days[2]. Male plants start to flower about 3 months after planting, a month earlier than females plants[5]. Hand pollination seems to be advantageous for fruit set as it resulted in 35% fruit set compared to 15% fruit set in open pollination[5]. Female plants produce about 18 single flowers which set fruit, but only 1 - 4 develop into mature fruits. Out of the female plants of a population, only 35% bear fruits. A large variation occurs between and within plants in the number of seeds per fruit, from 6 seeds per fruit up to 196, with an average of 62 seeds. The seeds are also unequal in size, varying in weight from 1 - 68g[5]. Fruits are ready about 5 - 6 months after sowing[5, 3]. The fresh shoot yield can be as low as 500 - 1,000 kilos per hecttare, but it can also reach 3 - 10 tonnes. In home gardens in Benin, one plant occupying 3 metres of fence produced 2 kilos of young leaves per metre in the rainy season and 500g in the dry season without irrigation[5]. The seed yield can reach 1.9 tonnes per hctare, derived from 3,000 fruits[5]. A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required[5]. Identifying the female plants from either seeds or young seedlings has not been successful, but vine size 64 days after planting could be used as a sex indicator, because female plants are more vigorous than the male ones[5].

Propagation

Seed - can be sown in situ or in containers. When grown in containers, sow 2 - 3 seeds in each container thinning to the strongest plant once they germinate[3]. Seed size affects the vigour, germination rates and establishment of the seedlings. Viability varies from 63% for small seeds weighing less than 11g, up to 89% for seeds weighing 22g. Germination takes about 14 days in natural soil, but only 7 days in a sawdust medium. Vine length one week after emergence is on average 31cm for large seeds, whereas small size seeds grow into a corresponding vine length of 16cm Plant out container-grown plants after about 30 days[3]. Some seeds exhibit polyembryony, producing more than one seedling[5]. The seed is recalcitrant in nature. They often germinate whilst still in the fruit and have a short viability, thus seed storage is difficult[5]. The critical seed moisture content below which seeds cannot recover from desiccation is 40 - 60%[5]. Layering. Very easy[6]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Telfairia+occidentalis>

Pollinators

Bees, Insects

References

  1. [1]World Agroforesty Centre — http://www.worldagroforestry.org/ ↩︎An excellent online database of a huge range of trees giving very good information on each plant - its uses, ecology, identity, propagation, pests etc.
  2. [2]Ecocrop — http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home ↩︎Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
  3. [3]Vegetables in the Tropics — Tindall. H. D. · MacMillan, Oxford. · 1983 · ISBN 0-333-24268-8 ↩︎An excellent, in-depth look at the main vegetable crops that can be grown in the Tropics, plus many less well-known plants.
  4. [4]Edible Leaves of the Tropics — Martin. F. W.; Ruberte. R. M. & Meitzner. L. S. · Echo. USA. · 1998 · ISBN 0-9653360-1-8 ↩︎A terse guide, giving reasonable detail on the more common leaf crops and brief information on a wide range of lesser known plants.
  5. [5]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
  6. [6]Nuts. — Howes. F. N. · Faber · 1948 · ISBN - ↩︎Rather old but still a masterpiece. Has sections on tropical and temperate plants with edible nuts plus a section on nut plants in Britain. Very readable.
  7. [7]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  8. [8]African Flowering Plants Database — Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques. · http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/africa/recherche.php ↩︎Contains information on over 150,000 plant names (including synonyms) giving a description and habitat, plus a distribution map.
  9. [9]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
  10. [10]Cornucopia II — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications, California. · 1998 · ISBN 0-9628087-2-5 ↩︎The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc.