Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl [Syn.: Cucurbita lagenaria L., Cucurbita siceraria Molina, Lagenaria leucantha Rusby, Lagenaria vulgaris Ser.] (TUMBI / ALABU)

Tumba or tumbi is repeatedly mentioned in brhat trayi texts.  It is also famous by its synonym alabu.  Caraka (Ka.3/3) and susruta (Ci.18/13) denoted alabu with another synonym pindaphala. Lamba is also another synonym used probably for the cylindrical variety of alabu. Usually, there are two varieties of figs viz., sweet and bitter varieties probably used as vegetable and medicinal plant respectively.  Bitter variety of alabu is considered as iksvaku or katukalabu or katu-tumbi or tiktalabu or tikteksvaku. The bottle gourd is one of humankind’s first domesticated plants, providing food, medicine and a wide variety of utensils and musical instruments.

Botanical Description  – Annual herb. Stems prostrate or climbing, angular, brittle, softly hairy, up to 5 m long. Leaves simple, up to 400 mm long and 400 mm broad, shortly and softly hairy, broadly egg-, kidney- or heart-shaped in outline, angular or faintly 3-7-lobed, margins shallowly toothed. Leaf stalks up to 300 mm long, thick, densely hairy, with two small, lateral glands inserted at the leaf base. Tendrils split in two. Flowers stalked (female flower stalks shorter than male), solitary, monoecious (male and female flowers on the same plant); petals 5, cream or white with darker veins, pale yellow at the base, up to 45 mm long. Fruit large, variable, up to 800 x 200 mm, subglobose to cylindrical, flask-shaped or globose with a constriction above the middle; fleshy, densely hairy to ultimately glabrous, indehiscent, green, maturing yellowish or pale brown, pulp drying out completely on ripening, leaving a thick, hard, hollow shell with almost nothing inside except the seeds. Seeds many, embedded in a spongy pulp, 7-20 mm long, compressed, with two flat facial ridges.

Distribution
It is generally accepted that L. siceraria (previously known as L. vulgaris Ser.) is indigenous to Africa and that it reached temperate and tropical areas in Asia and the Americas about 10 000 years ago. African and American land races (subsp. Siceraria ) are morphologically distinct from Asian land races (subsp. Asiatica). The calabash has been found growing mainly on alluvial sandy soil and red loam, on flat areas and moderate slopes, on rocky ridges, on river banks and in dry river beds, in disturbed areas and close to the road, often in the shade.

The genus Lagenaria contains six species, probably all originally Old World and mainly African. Only two species are found in southern Africa; L. siceraria and L. sphaerica.