Clusters of the prickly wild cucumber fruit develop sharp protective spines as they mature. Anza Valley Outlook/Courtesy photo
Prickly globes descend from winding tendrils, surrounded by bright green leaves, during this springtime phenomenon, the fruits demand attention as they dangle from vines wrapped among the redshank branches throughout the Anza Valley.Oddly named the wild cucumber, or man-root, Marah macrocarpa is a relative of the garden cucumber, watermelon and squash, plant experts say. Unlike these domesticated vegetables, all parts of the wild cucumber plant are toxic to some degree. It is a climbing and trailing perennial that emerges from a large woody or fleshy underground root that can weigh in excess of 100 pounds. One root, excavated at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens, weighed 467 pounds. It is because of this root that this vine is one of the first plants to reseed after a wildfire.W
