Ash gourd (Benincasa hispida)

Ash gourd (Benincasa hispida) has huge fruit and belongs to Cucurbitaceae family to which Cucumber also belongs. It grows on a climber. This climber is annual. It is propagated from seeds. Unlike other climbers this is not trained on the arch or on a trellis, because the excessive weight of the fruit. The climber is normally grown on tiled roof or directly on the ground. The fruit has excellent keeping quality and lasts many months if harvested at perfect maturity.

Mobile on fruit is for comparison of the size

An elongated, smaller fruit type

http://gardentia.net/2013/08/15/ash-gourd-kohalakushmand-petha-2/climber is bisexual, that is a single climber bears both male and female flowers. Female flowers can easily be distinguished from the ovary they have; which is lacking in male flowers. Many confuse this ovary with a fruit. Unless the female flower is fertilized, the fruit is not formed and the female flowers drop down. To decrease this abortion one can do hand pollination. A camel hair brush should be used to collect the pollen from a male flower and be deposited on stigma of the female flower.

Ovary of female flower is fertilized and the fruit is growing

Male flower

The fruit is used extensively for making Petha, a sweet. Slices of this gourd are soaked in syrup of sugar to make Petha. The fruit is also used as a fruit vegetable. It has many medicinal properties also. It is known also with following names: कोहळा (Kohala), कुमरा (Kumhra), पेठा (Petha), कुष्मांड (Kushmand).