On the Mallee Highway.

[reynardo]

On the way back from sandypawozbun's place on the long weekend, we drove via the Mallee Highway. There were stacks of these things in patches on the way - sometimes cracked open, sometimes solitary. We thought at first that someone had dropped a case of rockmelons.
Our next thought was that aliens were leaving their eggs by the side of the road to entice travellers to look a little more closely than was safe.



The "eggs" were the size of small rockmelons, and when broken open had melon or pumpkin like seeds. Though you can't see the colour very cleary here, they were usually a green with yellow stripes, a little like a carnival squash, but totally rounded. Perhaps more like the Lambkin melon. The juvenile fruit had spikes all over them, though, like a prickly pear crossed with a puffer fish.

Any idea what they might have been? Edit - identified as Paddy melons or Camel Melons!!!

(Whatever they are, they've taught me that melons and pumpkins belong to the same family, Curcurbitacea.)

Comments

[waitingman.livejournal.com]

I have a photo of one of these taken on the floodplain of the Murrumbidgee River south of Yass.

It seems to be some kind of giant melon/seed pod growing from an insignificant-looking weed-like plant that looks like it couldn't possibly sustain such an appendage, but somehow does...

There were a few burst ones on the floodplain which first caught my attention & made me look for a whole one but, not being a good or enthusiastic student of Botany, I confess I didn't give it much thought beyond taking the photo ~ until I saw your shot...

To cut a long story short (Too late!!), I have no idea what it is, but they seem to be healthily prevalent. As long as it's not a Triffid that bursts forth from the pod, I don't overly care

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

Melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, squashes... a versatile vegetable family. (Courgettes / zucchini ? Roasted squash - pumpkin to you, I think, but to me pumpkin is specifically the pie or jack-o-lantern kind and the other varieties are 'winter squash' - acorn, butternut, etc.)

I wonder if those things are edible - if not to humans then to wildlife or livestock?

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

They're edible for camels.

About 150 years ago a whole heap of Afghans came to Australia with their camels, and did a lot of trading up and down the frontier areas. Unfortunately, the stuffing on their saddles included the fibres from these Paddy Melons, and the seeds, which fell out and germinated in this strange country. The melons are a pest and have been known to take over entire fields. They're not really edible for humans (unless you want the purge from hell) but they're great fodder for camels.

Except for the minor point that what camels we have here are also pests.

Unrelated but important

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

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Re: Unrelated but important

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

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