The vine, also called 'Sweet calabash' is woody but slender, climbing to 33 ft or more by means of tendrils in the leaf axils, and draping trees, walls and small buildings. The evergreen leaves are fairly thin and light-green. The peduncle bears 3 thin, ovate, pointed bracts, to 2 in (5 cm) long which enclose the unopened bud and form an ivory-hued background for the opened flower, which is fragrant, 2 to 2 3/8 in wide, with keeled, green, maroon-dotted sepals and 5 small petals, greenish-white, dotted with red or purple. The corona is 3-ranked and variegated white, purple and blue.
The fruit is oblate to nearly round-oval. The pulp is grayish or pale orange-yellow, juicy, sweet or subacid and pleasingly aromatic, containing many black, flat, ovate, pitted seeds.
Hardy zone 10
Sowing instructions:
sow 1/16 ' deep at 70-80 degrees. Germination takes 2-12 weeks.
