Prickly Paddymelon
Flower & Failed Fruit
Murray Mallee Region
Prickly Paddymelon
Green Fruit
 
                 
Prickly Paddymelon (Cucumis myriocarpus ssp myriocarpus)Class: Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida)
Order: Vines (Cucurbitales)
Family: Gourd (Cucurbitaceae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Prickly Paddymelon (Cucumis myriocarpus ssp myriocarpus)
This Photo:     🔍Green Fruits🔎
Other names: Gooseberry Cucumber, Thorny Cucumber or Paddy Melon

Thank you Prof Hanno Schaefer for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found in the Murray Mallee SA and possibly elsewhere
Flowers are ~5mm wide with the fruits measuring ~30mm wide.
Young fruits are very green & with broad stripes of different shades of green. As the rippen they go yellow.
We tend to find these & the larger paddymelon together in the same patches.
While called Prickly, the tubercles eminating from the fruit are quite rubbery; not at all sharp. The fruit has the texture of firm tomatoe.

Copyright © 2025-2026 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 25-Apr-2025
This species is classed as If (Foreign Introduction)