E. elaterium is tender, bushy or trailing perennial, often treated as a half-hardy annual, and grown for its unusual but poisonous fruits. The plant has large, rough leaves and in summer bears solitary yellow, trumpet-shaped flowers. Ripe fruits are cucumber-like and explode at the slightest touch, expelling their seeds (hence they can be invasive).
Squirting Cucumber Care
Ecballium Elaterium
What is the plant
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Humidity
Normal
Lighting
Full Sun
Hardiness zone
8 - 11
Difficulty
Medium
Hibernation
Cold Period
Toxicity
Poisonous
How to Care for the Plant
Water
It prefers dry or moist soil.
Sunlight
It cannot grow in the shade.
Soil
Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils, prefers well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils
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Temperature
It is hardy to zone (UK) 9 and is frost tender. The foliage is fairly frost-tender, though the roots are much hardier and plants can survive quite cold winters in Britain. They are more likely to be killed by excessive winter wet.
Additional
Poisonous in large quantities(this probably refers to the fruit). The juice of the fruit is irritative to some skins
Popularity
283 people already have this plant 34 people have added this plant to their wishlists
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