[ **up: [[Plants]] | [[Angiosperms]] | [[Curcurbitales (Order)]] | [[Lagenaria (Genus)]] | [[Curcurbita (Genus)]]** ] --- # Bottle gourd (*Lagenaria siceraria*) Bottle gourd (also known as calabash gourd) is a vine grown for its fruit. > It can be either harvested young to be consumed as a vegetable, or harvested mature to be dried and used as a utensil, container, or a musical instrument. When it is fresh, the fruit has a light green smooth skin and white flesh.[^1] --- ## Taxonomy - **[[Life (Biology)]]** - **[[Eukaryotes|Eukaryota (Domain)]]** - **[[Plants|Plantae (Kingdom)]]** - [[Magnoliophyta (Division)|Angiosperms/Magnoliophyta (Division)]] <small>has flowers</small> - [[Curcurbitales (Order)]] - *[[Lagenaria (Genus)]]* - *[[Bottle gourd|Lagenaria siceraria]]* <small>BOTTLE GOURD</small> --- ## Cultural Uses ### Bottle gourds in China > The bottle gourd has been recovered from archaeological contexts in China and Japan dating to ca. 8,000–9,000.[^1] > The *húlu* (葫芦 / 葫蘆), as the calabash is called in [[Chinese language|Mandarin]] Chinese is an ancient symbol for health.[^1] - doctors, in historical times, would carry medicine within it.[^1] - believed to absorb negative, earth-based *[[Qi]]*, and is a [[Chinese medicine]] cure.[^1] - “Molded gourds were also dried to house pet crickets.”[^1] ![[wikimedia - 'Feng shui Bottle Gourd (葫蘆)' by Benjwong (CC0).jpg]] #### Bottle gourds in Chinese legend, culture & idioms > The bottle-gourd is a typical part of the magician’s or the Taoist’s paraphernalia. It contains his magic potions and so forth.[^2] > The bottle-gourd is a miniature replica of heaven and earth: in its shape it unites the two. When it is opened, a sort of cloud comes out which can be used to trap demons.[^3] [^1]: ‘Calabash’, *Wikipedia*, updated 21 March 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabash. [^2]: Wolfram Eberhard, ‘Bottle-gourd’, in *[[Eberhard. 'A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols', 1986.|A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols: Hidden Symbols in Chinese Life and Thought]]* (London: Routledge, 1986), pp. 45-46. [^3]: Eberhard, ‘Bottle-gourd’, in *A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols*, p. 46.