'Trichosanthes cucumerina' is a tropical or subtropical vine, raised for its strikingly long fruit, used as a vegetable, medicine, and, a lesser known use, crafting didgeridoos. Common names include snake gourd (var. anguina), serpent gourd, chichinga, and padwal. It is known as chichindo in Nepali, chhachindra in Oriya, chichinga or chichinge in Bengali, purla in Sambalpuri language, potlakaaya (పొట్లకాయ) in Telugu, pathola(පතෝල) in Sinhala, pudalankaai (புடலங்காய்) in Tamil, dhunduli in Assamese, paduvalakaayi(ಪಡುವಲ ಕಾಯಿ) in Kannada and padavalanga (പടവലങ്ങ) in Malayalam.
Formerly, the cultivated form was considered a distinct species, but it is nowadays regarded as a mere variety of the wild ancestor, as they freely interbreed:
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