Bottle Gourd

This little gourd/calabash (lagenaria siceraria) is from the herbaceous Bottle gourd tree. The bottle gourd may have been carried from Africa to Asia, Europe, and the Americas in the course of human migration,or by seeds floating across the oceans inside the gourd. It has been proven to have existed in the New World prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus. It can be either harvested young to be consumed as a vegetable, or harvested mature to be dried and used as a bottle or decoration.