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The cucumber ( Cucumis sativus) is a widely-cultivated creeping vine plant in the family Cucurbitaceae that bears cylindrical to spherical , used as culinary vegetables. Considered an annual plant, there are three main types of cucumber—slicing, pickling, and Seedless fruit.
The cucumber originates in Asia, in a region extending from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, China (Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi), and Northern Thailand, but now grows on most , and many different types of cucumber are grown commercially and traded on the global market. In North America, a 'wild cucumber' is a plant in the Genus Echinocystis and Marah, though these are not closely related to the cucumber.
They have been cultivated for at least 3,000 years, and were eaten all year round by the Roman Emperor Tiberius. In the Middle Ages, Charlemagne had them grown for him, and the Spanish brought them to the Americas in the Columbian exchange in 1494. World production is led by China with over three quarters of the total.
The fruit of typical cultivars of cucumber is roughly cylindrical, but elongated with tapered ends, and may be as large as long and in diameter.
Cucumber fruits consist of 95% water (see nutrition table). In Botany terms, the cucumber is classified as a pepo, a type of botanical berry with seeds and an outer rind. In a Culinary arts context, it is considered a vegetable.
Some are Parthenocarpy, 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. They may have a pollenizer cultivar interplanted, and the number of beehives per unit area is increased, but temperature changes induce male flowers even on these plants, which may be sufficient for pollination to occur.
C. sativus is the sole member of the genus to have 2N=14 chromosomes. In 2009, the cucumber genome was sequenced. A study of genetic recombination during meiosis provided a high resolution landscape of meiotic DNA double strand-breaks and genetic crossovers in the species.
In 2024, world production of cucumbers and gherkins was 88 million , led by China with 78% of the total (table).
Pickled cucumber with brine, sugar, vinegar, and spices creates flavored products from cucumbers and other foods. Cucumbers grown for pickling are shorter, thicker, and thinner-skinned than other varieties.
Gherkins, cornichons, or baby pickles, are small cucumbers, typically those in length, often with bumpy skin, which are typically used for pickling. The word gherkin comes from the early modern Dutch language gurken or augurken ('small pickled cucumber'). The term is used in the name for Cucumis anguria, the West Indian gherkin, a closely related species.
Burpless cucumbers are sweeter and have a thinner skin than other varieties of cucumber. They are reputed to be easy to digest and to have a pleasant taste. They can grow as long as , are nearly seedless, and have a delicate skin. Most commonly grown in greenhouses, these parthenocarpic cucumbers are often found in Grocery store, Shrink wrap in plastic. They are marketed as either burpless or seedless, as the seeds and skin of other varieties of cucumbers are said to give some people gas.
Cucumber shoots are regularly consumed as a vegetable, especially in rural areas. In Thailand they are often served with a crab meat sauce. They can be stir fried or used in soups.
Cultivars and pollination
Most cucumber cultivars are seeded and require pollination. For this purpose, thousands of Honey bee are carried to cucumber fields each year just before bloom. Cucumbers can be pollinated by 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 and fruit. Some self-compatible cultivars exist that are related to the 'Lemon cucumber' cultivar.
Herbivore defense
in cucumbers may discourage natural foraging by , such as insects, or wildlife. As a possible defense mechanism, cucumbers produce Cucurbitacin, 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, , pedicel, Caropodium, and fruit.
Taxonomy and genetics
Cucumis sativus was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 in his Species Plantarum. , Plants of the World Online accepted 61 species in the genus Cucumis, also created by Linnaeus.
Production
+ Cucumber production 68.6 1.7 1.7 1.0 0.96 87.8
Consumption
Nutrition
Raw cucumber (with peel) is 95% water, 4% , 1% protein, and contains negligible fat (table). In a Serving size of , raw cucumber provides of food energy, and has a low content of notable only for vitamin K at 14% of the Daily Value (table).
Aroma and taste
Depending on variety, cucumbers may have a mild melon aroma and flavor, in part resulting from unsaturated , such as , and the cis- and trans- of 2-nonenal. The slightly bitter taste of cucumber rind results from cucurbitacins. The polyphenol content is higher in unpeeled cucumbers.
Culinary uses
In horticulture, cucumbers are classified into three main cultivar groups: slicing, pickling, and Seedless fruit. Cucumbers grown to eat fresh are called slicing cucumbers. The main varieties of slicers mature on with large leaves that provide shading. Slicers grown commercially for the North American market are generally longer, smoother, more uniform in color, and have much tougher skin. In contrast, those in other countries, often called European cucumbers, are smaller and have thinner, more delicate skin, often with fewer seeds, thus are often sold in plastic skin for protection. This variety is called a 'telegraph cucumber' in Australasia.
(2026). 9780794600785, Periplus Editions. ISBN 9780794600785
Cultivation history
Cultivated for at least 3,000 years, "Cucumis sativus" were domesticated in India from wild " C. sativus var. hardwickii".> (2021). 9781119717003, Wiley. ISBN 9781119717003 where a great many varieties have been observed, along with its closest living relative, Cucumis hystrix.Asian News International. 21 July 2010. " Cucumber, melon's common ancestor originated in Asia." NewsTrack India. Retrieved on 4 June 2020. The three main cultivar groups of cucumber are Eurasian cucumbers (slicing cucumbers eaten raw and immature), East Asian cucumbers (pickling cucumbers), and Xishuangbanna cucumbers. Based on demographic modelling, the East Asian C. sativus cultivars diverged from the Indian cultivars about 2,500 years ago. 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." Cucumber." Encyclopædia Britannica. 1998 2019.Doijode, S. D. 2001. Seed storage of horticultural crops. Haworth Press. . p. 281.
Roman Empire
According to Pliny the Elder, the Emperor Tiberius had the cucumber on his table daily during summer and winter. In order to have it available for his table every day of the year, the Romans reportedly used artificial growing methods (similar to the Greenhouse) using mirrorstone, Pliny's lapis specularis, believed to have been sheet mica: "Indeed, he was never without cucumbers; for he had raised beds made in frames upon wheels, by means of which the cucumbers were moved and exposed to the full heat of the sun; while, in winter, they were withdrawn, and placed under the protection of frames glazed with mirrorstone."Pliny the Elder. 77–79 1855. " Vegetables of a Cartilaginous Nature—Cucumbers. Pepones ." Ch. 23 in The Natural History XIX, translated by J. Bostock and H. T. Riley. London: Taylor & Francis. – via Perseus under PhiloLogic, also available via Perseus Project. They were cultivated in specularia, cucumber houses glazed with oiled cloth. Pliny describes the vegetable as very small, probably like a gherkin. Separately, he describes the preparation of a medication known as elaterium, but this may have been Ecballium elaterium, known in pre-Linnean times as Cucumis silvestris or Cucumis asininus ('wild cucumber' or 'donkey cucumber'), a different species.Pliny the Elder, Natural History XX. iii . Pliny writes about several other varieties of cucumber, including the cultivated cucumber,Pliny the Elder, Natural History XX. iv – v . and remedies from the different types (9 from the cultivated; 5 from the "anguine;" and 26 from the "wild").
Middle Ages
Charlemagne had cucumbers grown in his gardens in the 8th/9th century. They were reportedly introduced into England in the early 14th century, lost, then reintroduced approximately 250 years later. The Spaniards (through the Italian people Christopher Columbus) brought cucumbers to Haiti in 1494. In 1535, Jacques Cartier, a French explorer, found "very great cucumbers" grown on the site of what is now Montreal.
Early-modern era
Throughout the 16th century, European trappers, traders, bison hunters, and explorers bartered for the products of American Indian agriculture. The tribes of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains learned from the Spanish how to grow European crops. The farmers on the Great Plains included the Mandan and Abenaki. They obtained cucumbers and from the Spanish, and added them to the crops they were already growing, including several varieties of Maize and , , squash, and gourd plants. The Iroquois were growing them when the first Europeans visited them. (1996). 9782881244650, Gordon and Breach. ISBN 9782881244650 In 1630, the Reverend Francis Higginson wrote in his book New-Englands Plantation that "The countrie aboundeth naturally with store of roots of great varietie and good to eat. Our turnips, parsnips, and carrots are here both bigger and sweeter than is ordinary to be found in England. Here are store of pompions, cowcumbers, and other things of that nature which I know not".Higginson, Francis. 1630 1906. . Salem, MA: Essex Book and Print Club. . p. 5. In New England Prospect (1633, England), William Wood wrote that "The ground affords very good kitchin gardens, for Turneps, Parsnips, Carrots, Radishes, and Pompions, Muskmillons, Isquoter-squashes, coucumbars, Onyons, and whatever grows well in England grows as well there, many things being better and larger."Wood, William. (1634). " Of the Hearbes, Fruites, Woods, Waters and Mineralls", pp. 13–18 in New England Prospect. London.
Age of Enlightenment
Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary on 22 August 1663 that "this day Sir W. Batten tells me that Mr. Newburne is dead of eating cowcumbers, of which the other day I heard of another, I think. Saturday 22 August 1663 (Pepys' Diary). Pepysdiary.com. Retrieved on 25 November 2012. John Evelyn in 1699 wrote that the cucumber, "however dress'd, was thought fit to be thrown away, being accounted little better than poyson". According to the 18th-century British lexicographer and wit Samuel Johnson, it was commonly said among English physicians that a cucumber "should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing."
See also
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