Cucurbitaceae Miracle Cucumber

Small, green cucumber-like fruits to be used for decoration. As it ripens, it changes colour like a magic ball to orange-yellow and beware: in the final stage of ripeness, the fruit bursts open and shoots its seeds meters away. If the immature fruit is broken off its stem, the plant sap sprays meters out of the fruit! Fun to scare someone...
Information from Wikipedia: The plants grow wild in Southern Europe along the Mediterranean coast and in West and Central Asia. The creeping plant can grow up to 60 cm high and grows in verges, arable land and railway embankments. The thick leaves are coarsely toothed and hairy white on the underside. The Squirting Cucumber is monoecious. The yellow flowers are bell-shaped and unisexual. The Squirting Cucumber has a remarkable way of reproduction (called autochory); it produces a substance that attracts water. This causes it to become under great tension, up to 6 bar. As soon as something touches the fruit, the fruit stalk breaks off and the fruit falls from the plant, while at the same time an opening appears at the breaking point and, just like a champagne bottle, the content sprays out with eighty seeds embedded in slimy, green, liquid pulp. The squirting cucumber is called colocynth in the Bible. It appears, among other places, in 2 Kings 4:38-41, where Elisha makes the poisonous fruits edible with flour. Elsewhere, the plant is used for decoration. It is therefore considered a biblical plant and is consequently planted in church gardens in the Netherlands. Please note: the fruits are not edible!

GENERAL INTRODUCTION CUCUMBERS:
Cucumbers that produce long tendrils can be pruned regularly. For outdoor cultivation, a reasonable summer is needed (depending on the variety), and all varieties grow in the greenhouse. Sometimes it is advisable to let the plant grow outdoors if fruit set fails! Cucumbers are usually harvested unripe, unless the skin becomes particularly attractive when ripe. Unripe fruits are sliced and eaten raw in salads, ripe fruits can be scooped out like a melon. Many small cucumber-like fruits or (extremely) young harvested fruits are eaten as gherkins (pickled) or as a healthy snack with a drink or meal. Please note the individual description of our species and varieties; some are for ornamental purposes only and NOT edible!

Names:
Latin: Ecballium elaterium, or also Momordica elaterium
Dutch: Toverkomkommer (Magic Cucumber)
Also: Springkomkommer (Squirting Cucumber), Spuitkomkommer (Spurting Cucumber) or Ezelskomkommer (Donkey Cucumber)
English: Cucumber