Angled Luffa Gourd - Long Green seeds

Angled Luffa Gourd - Long Green seeds

Luffa acutangula
Packet: 7 Seeds, 10g, 25g (approx 190 seeds)

Angled Luffa Gourd is commercially grown for its unripe fruits as a vegetable. Mature fruits are used as natural cleaning sponges. Its fruit slightly resembles a cucumber or zucchini with ridges. It ranges from central and eastern Asia to southeastern Asia. It is also grown as a houseplant in places with colder climates. English common names include angled luffa, Tori, Turiya, Torai, Jingha, Pirkan, Chinese okra, dishcloth gourd, ridged gourd, sponge gourd, vegetable gourd, strainer vine, ribbed loofah, silky gourd, ridged gourd, silk gourd, and sin qwa towel sponge.

This open-pollinated variety produces light green ribbed fruit up to 50cm in length. The Luffa is a Southeast Asian tropical vine traditionally used to produce sponges. However, the Angled Luffa is primarily used as a vegetable and is a common sight in Asian markets, and is one of the most popular summer vegetables in southern China.

The young fruit of some cultivars are used as cooked vegetables or pickled or eaten raw, and the shoots and flowers are sometimes also used. Like Luffa aegyptiaca, the mature fruits are harvested when dry and processed to remove all but the fruit fibre, which can then be used as a sponge or as fibre for making hats.

To harvest, pick young at about 2-3 weeks after the fruit has set and still tender. Older fruits will become bitter. Besides the fruit, the male flowers and young shoots are also eaten and are best picked in the early morning.