Taw Manroot - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Marah watsonii, the Taw Manroot, is an uncommon manroot

Manroot

The manroots, wild cucumbers, or cucumber gourd are flowering plants in the gourd family , native to western North America. They are also commonly called Old man in the ground. The genus name comes from Hebrew מָרָ֔א The manroots, wild cucumbers, or cucumber gourd (genus Marah) are flowering...

endemic to central northern California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. Its range is bounded by the eastern coastal foothills, the western foothills of the northern Sierra Nevada and Cascades ranges and from Lake Berryessa

Lake Berryessa

Lake Berryessa is the largest lake in Napa County, California. This reservoir is formed by the Monticello Dam, which provides water and hydroelectricity to the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area....

in the south to Lake Shasta in the north.

Foliage

Taw manroot shares with all marah species non-twining stems and tendrils. Unlike other manroot species, however, Marah watsonii vines are nearly hairless with a glaucous, grey-green color. Vines appear in late winter or early spring in response to increased rainfall, and can climb or scramble to a length of 6 metres (19.7 ft). Unlike the leaves of other manroot species, taw manroot leaves are highly dissected and multi-lobed - reminiscent of jigsaw puzzle

Jigsaw puzzle

A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of numerous small, often oddly shaped, interlocking and tessellating pieces.Each piece usually has a small part of a picture on it; when complete, a jigsaw puzzle produces a complete picture...

pieces.

Vines emerge from a large, hard tuberous root which can reach several meters in length and weigh in excess of 100 kilograms (220.5 lb). Newly exposed tubers can be seen along road-cuts or eroded slopes and have a scaly, tan-colored surface. Injured or decaying tubers take on a golden or orange color.

Flower

Flowers are white. Flowers appear soon after the vine emerges. The flowers are monoecious

Plant sexuality

Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes morphological aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....

, that is, individual flowers are either male or female, but both sexes can be found on the same plant. Male flowers appear in open spikes while females flowers, distinguished by a swollen base, usually appear individually and hang down from the axis of the male flower-spike. The plant is self-fertile, i.e. pollen from the male flowers can fertilize the female flowers on the same plant; pollination is by insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

Fruit

The fruit is spherical to oblong, 6–8 cm (2.4–3.1 in) in diameter, and suspended from a long, wrinkled stem. Taw manroot fruit have fewer and more robust, hornlike spikes than other manroot species with the spikes tapering to smooth ridges at the bottom of the fruit. Some plants have smooth fruit with dark green veins running from top to bottom. Unripe fruit are light green, sometimes with faint dark green stripes, ripening to yellow. Fruit begin to form in spring and ripen as the vine dies from the heat and drought of late spring/early summer. The fruit swells as it ripens until finally rupturing and expelling the large seeds. In more moist areas, the vine may stay green until after fruit have ruptured.

Seeds & Germination

Marah watsonii seeds are more spherical than other manroot species. Fruit usually hold 4 or more of these large seeds. Seeds have an intriguing germination process. The initial shoot emerges from the seed and grows downward into the earth. This shoot then splits, one part beginning to swell and form the tuber, while the second part grows back to the surface and becomes the vine.

Habitat

Taw Manroot grows most vigorously by streams or in washes but can also be successful in dryer areas, at elevations up to 1600 metres (5,249.3 ft). It will tolerate a variety of soil types and acidities, but it requires at least seasonally moist soil. Vines can grow in full-sun to heavily shaded conditions. Vines die back in summer and emerge in late winter.

Uses

All parts of the plant have a bitter taste (this is the meaning of the genus name Marah, which comes from Hebrew). Despite this, the leaves have been used as a vegetable. The large tuber of the manroot can be processed for a soap-like extract.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.