Hodgsonia macrocarpa Seeds | Large-fruited Hodgson’s Vine
LATIN NAME: Hodgsonia macrocarpa
COMMON NAME: Large-Fruited Hodgson’s Vine
Plant Profile
Hodgsonia macrocarpa is a woody climber of the eastern Himalaya with a fruit that looks out of scale with everything around it. The gourd hangs from the canopy on a thick stalk and reaches twenty-five centimetres across, green and faintly ribbed, ripening to a dull brown. A single fruit can weigh three kilograms and holds a dozen large, flat seeds.
The vine climbs by tendrils and can cover a large tree, with palmate leaves thirty centimetres wide. Flowers are separate, and the plant is dioecious, so a lone vine will flower and never fruit. In its native range it grows in warm, wet forest between about 600 and 2,000 metres, often along streams where the canopy is broken and the roots stay cool.
Science & Biotechnology
The seed is the valuable part and it carries an unusual oil. Analysis of Hodgsonia seed oil shows a high proportion of eleostearic acid, the conjugated fatty acid that makes tung oil dry to a hard film, together with ordinary oleic and linoleic acids. That composition explains why the oil sets on exposure to air and why it has been tried as a drying oil rather than as a cooking fat.
The fruit wall is hard and the seed coat is thick, both of which protect the seed through the monsoon. Germination in the wild is slow and uneven, and seedlings often appear in the second or third season after the fruit rots down. The vine also produces cucurbitacin bitters in the foliage, which is why deer and cattle leave it alone.
Uses & Benefits
The seed is eaten roasted in Yunnan and in north-east India, and the kernel tastes somewhere between a peanut and a pine nut. It is also pressed for oil, which is used for lamps and for waterproofing in villages where the vine grows, and the pressed cake goes to livestock.
Medicinally the seed and the root appear in local practice as a tonic and as a treatment for skin complaints, and the fruit wall is used as a container once it has dried. None of these uses has been through a clinical trial, and the raw seed should not be eaten in quantity, since the cucurbitacins in the plant are purgative.
Growing from Seed
Seed needs warmth and patience. Clean the kernel from the fruit, soak it for two days in changes of water, then sow it in a deep pot at 25 to 30 degrees. Germination can take two to four months, and the seedling resents disturbance, so use a pot big enough for the first year.
The vine needs a strong frame, full sun and a long season. It will climb a large tree or a sturdy pergola, and it should be planted where the roots can reach moisture without standing in it. Because the species is dioecious, at least two seedlings are needed for fruit, and even then the sex is not known until the first flowers open.
Our Take
A curiosity for a warm, wet garden with room for a big climber, grown for the giant gourd and the roasted seed rather than for ornament.
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