Cucumber

Lore & Background

The cucumber is an annual creeping vine that roots in the ground and grows up trellises or other supporting frames, wrapping around supports with thin, spiraling tendrils. The plant can root in a soilless medium, then sprawl along the ground in the absence of a supporting structure. The vine has large leaves that form a canopy over the fruits. The fruit of typical cultivars of cucumber is roughly cylindrical, but elongated with tapered ends, and may be as large as 62 centimeters (24 in) long and 10 centimeters (4 in) in diameter. Cucumber fruits consist of 95% water. In botanical terms, the cucumber is classified as a pepo, a type of botanical berry with seeds and an outer rind. In a culinary context, it is considered a vegetable.

Most cucumber cultivars are seeded and require pollination. For this purpose, thousands of honey beehives are carried to cucumber fields each year just before bloom. Cucumbers can be pollinated by bumblebees and several other wild bee species. Most cucumbers that require pollination are self-incompatible, thus requiring the pollen of another plant in order to form seeds and fruit. Some self-compatible cultivars exist that are related to the 'Lemon cucumber' cultivar. Some cultivars are parthenocarpic, creating seedless fruit without pollination; these are often grown in greenhouses. However, fruit set is significantly higher when bees visit the flowers. Traditional cultivars produce male blossoms first, then female, in about equivalent numbers. Newer gynoecious hybrid cultivars produce almost all female blossoms.

Phytochemicals in cucumbers may discourage natural foraging by herbivores, such as insects, nematodes or wildlife. As a possible defense mechanism, cucumbers produce cucurbitacin C, which causes a bitter taste in some cucumber varieties. This potential mechanism is under preliminary research to identify whether cucumbers are able to deter herbivores and environmental stresses by using an intrinsic chemical defense, particularly in the leaves, cotyledons, pedicel, carpopodium, and fruit.

Reader's Guide

The cucumber has been cultivated for at least 3,000 years, with domestication in India from wild Cucumis sativus var. hardwickii. It was probably introduced to Europe by the Greeks or Romans. Records of cucumber cultivation appear in France in the 9th century, England in the 14th century, and in North America by the mid-16th century. According to Pliny the Elder, the Emperor Tiberius had the cucumber on his table daily during summer and winter, using artificial growing methods with frames glazed with mirrorstone. Charlemagne had cucumbers grown in his gardens in the 8th/9th century. The Spaniards brought cucumbers to Haiti in 1494. In 2024, world production of cucumbers and gherkins was 88 million tonnes, led by China with 78% of the total. Cucumis sativus was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 in his Species Plantarum. In 2009, the cucumber genome was sequenced. The three main cultivar groups are slicing, pickling, and seedless/burpless. Cucumbers are used fresh, pickled, and in various culinary preparations. The slightly bitter taste of cucumber rind results from cucurbitacins. The polyphenol content is higher in unpeeled cucumbers. Burpless cucumbers are sweeter and have a thinner skin, often grown in greenhouses and shrink-wrapped in plastic.

Did You Know?

• The cucumber is 95% water.
• Roman Emperor Tiberius had cucumbers on his table daily, using artificial growing methods with mirrorstone.
• Charlemagne had cucumbers grown in his gardens in the 8th/9th century.
• In 2024, China produced 78% of the world's cucumbers and gherkins.