Calabash

Calabash

Calabash, also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, New Guinea butter bean or Tasmania bean, is a vine which is grown for its fruit. It belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae, is native to tropical Africa, and cultivated across the tropics. It can be either harvested young to be consumed as a vegetable, or harvested mature to be dried and used as a kitchen utensil, beverage container or a musical instrument. When it is fresh, the fruit has a light green smooth skin and white flesh.

Calabash (percussion)

In African music, the calabash is a percussion instrument of the family of idiophones consisting of a half of a large calabash gourd, which is struck with the palms, fingers, wrist or objects to produce a variety of percussive sounds.

calabash

Noun

1. A tree (known as the calabash tree; Crescentia cujete) native to Central and South America, the West Indies, and southern Florida, bearing large, round fruit used to make containers (sense 3); the fruit of this tree.
2. The bottle gourd (calabash vine, Lagenaria siceraria), believed to have originated in Africa, which is grown for its fruit that are used as a vegetable and to make containers (sense 3); the fruit of this plant.