Luffa aegyptiaca Seeds | Aegyptica
LATIN NAME: Luffa aegyptiaca
COMMON NAME: Luffa
Plant Profile
Known to gardeners as Luffa, Luffa aegyptiaca is a vine in the gourd family. Luffa climbs trellis with long, ridged, golden-green fruits, and large, lobed leaves and yellow flowers cover the vine. It is a vine of open, sunny, deep, rich, moist ground. When it flowers, local bees and other insects make good use of it. It is hard to name another plant that gives this much for this little trouble.
Science & Biotechnology
As part of the gourd family, Luffa aegyptiaca contributes to research on plant classification and adaptation, while nurseries and gardeners continue to trial it for cultivation. It retains a following among breeders and collectors, which keeps seed stocks in circulation.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden, Luffa earns its place in borders, containers and mixed plantings, and it also rewards growers who raise plants for cutting, drying or kitchen use. Luffa is a fine, generous vine of warm garden and the trellis. It is a fine, generous vine of open, sunny, deep, rich, moist garden. Give young vines trellis and warm, sunny spot, and ridged fruits will come in the first warm season. In later seasons it demands little more than an appreciative eye.
Luffa is both vegetable and bath sponge: the young fruits are a tender Asian squash, and the mature fibrous skeleton, Si Gua Luo, is a classical Chinese herb for moving channels, as well as the world’s favorite natural bath scrub.
Growing from Seed
Luffa grows readily from seed. Level a tray of loose seed compost, sow evenly, cover to about the seed’s own depth, and keep it moist in full light. Grow the youngsters on steadily in pots until well rooted, then move them to their final positions.
Our Take
It is a solid representative of the Luffa group, true to type from seed. The only critical period is germination, when the compost must stay evenly moist.
Related Reading
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