If you carefully examine the cucumber grown on the garden bed, you will notice a lot of pimples on the peel of the vegetable. But why are the fruits of the cucumber arranged like this, why do they need pimples? Have they always been what cucumbers looked like in the past? How did you manage to get smooth varieties?
Answering these questions is not difficult. Mankind has been cultivating cultivated, edible plants for millennia, the cucumber has also come a long way in cultivation, during which it underwent certain changes.
What does a wild cucumber look like?
However, pimples appeared on green vegetables not in the process of selection. They have a much earlier origin, when the ancestors of the juicy goodies had to seriously defend themselves from wild animals, from herbivores. It was necessary to beat off the appetite of many who wanted to eat delicious fruits.
Interesting fact: cucumber is eaten by immature people - still “green”. Ripening, the fruit acquires a yellow color, loses its juiciness, taste. But its seeds ripen completely, gain the ability to give life to new plants - planting them from a green vegetable is useless.
In order to protect themselves, the fruits grew serious thorns, which were based just on the spot of pimples. The thorns protected the fetus until the seeds completely ripened, after which they fell away. Many modern varieties of cucumbers also have small spikes, which are especially well felt when harvesting a summer crop with your own hands.
Why pimples for subtropical cucumbers?
Cucumbers with pimples are subtropical plants, their ancestors live in southeast India. Faced with excess moisture, the vegetable had to work out a mechanism for its discharge, otherwise it would risk rotting on the vine. Plants learned to get rid of moisture through pimples that removed water, dropping it with drops. In addition, breathing is always important for the plant, tubules in pimples began to play this role, providing ventilation.
Interesting fact: Mistresses choose pickled cucumbers for salting. This is important, because through the tubules in these organs, the brine penetrates the inside of the fetus, while smooth species are simply enveloped by it from the outside.
Where did the smooth cucumbers come from?
Examining pimples, realizing how important these organs are for a green fetus, it becomes difficult to understand how smooth forms of the same plant appeared. It turns out that they were not obtained through selection - smooth cucumbers were in nature immediately.
If short-fruited umbilical varieties appeared from India, then smooth ones came from China and Japan. Cucumber has two homelands, each of which brought its own plant forms.. In another climate, the plant did not need tubercles, they were gone, or they were not there initially. Today, both forms of plants are cultivated, pimples are recommended for salting, canning, while smooth ones are considered salad varieties.
In Russia, buyers traditionally prefer cucumbers with tubercles, considering them more tasty and healthy - they are actively purchased even for salads.There is a gradation according to which black-chipped cucumbers are good for pickles, and white-chipped cucumbers for salads, both versions have pimples. However, modern selection has allowed a much greater variety of solutions to be obtained, the old truth about the color of thorns does not work unambiguously.
As a rule, in Russia they buy short-fruited green or dark green options for salads, while China and Japan also confidently choose long fruits without tubercles, considering them the best. In this case, it is impossible to give a scientific answer to the question of fruit selection; practice shows that the question lies in the traditions and taste of people. Indeed, almost the entire Middle East generally considers cucumber a dessert!
Thus, the tubercles on the cucumber are separate organs that ensure the removal of excess moisture, the air exchange of the greenhouse. Initially, thorns grew on them, they played primarily a protective function - thorns are observed on many varieties of vegetables to this day, they also grow on pimples. Therefore, we can confidently say - tubercles protect the fetus, and they also make it suitable for salting, allowing liquids to penetrate evenly, to the full depth.
