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  • COMMON NAME: desert squash, bitter gourd, colocynth.
  • ARABIC: الحنظل
  • BOTANICAL NAME: Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad.
  • SYNONYMS: cucumis colocynthis L.
  • FAMILY: CUCURBITACEAE
  • KIND: Native
  • EMIRATE: Abu-Dhabi , Dubai , Sharjah , Fujairah
  • CATEGORIES: Medicinal (M) Fodder (F) Fruits (F) Cosmectis (C) Apiculture (A) Other Uses (O)
  • GROWTH FORMS: Shrubs Careeper
  • HABITATS: Sandy
  • TYPES: Perennial
  • REMARKS: Wadi Wurayah National Park (WWNP). Plants used by honeybees for nectar collection for honey production. Toxicity: poisonous. Foodplant for desert rodents.
Flora of the United Arab Emirates V1 & 2, Fawzi M.Karim, Nael M.Fawzi; reviewed by Fatima Al-Ansary. Al-Ain: United Arab Emirates University, 2007. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:291930-1 M.V.D jongbloed, G.R. Fuelner, B. Boer, A.R. Western. the comprehensive guide to the wild flowers of the United Arab Emirates. Environmental research and wildlife Development agency, Abu Dhabi, 2003. Gary R. Feulner. 2014. The Flora of Wadi Wurayah National Park Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. V.V. Byalt, V.M. Korshunov, M.V. Korshunov. Cadaster of the Flora of Fujairah Emirate (United Arab Emirates). Al Fujairah 2021. El-Keblawy A., Shabana H. A., Navarro T., Soliman S. (2017). Effect of maturation time on dormancy and germination of Citrullus colocynthis (Cucurbitaceae) seeds from the Arabian hyper-arid deserts. BMC Plant Biology, 1-10.
Energy source (oilseed and biofuel). Honey nectar plants. Powdered leaves mixed with water laxative. Poultices made from crushed leaves and garlic applied to bites and stings. Sap of unripe fruit used to treat scorpion stings. Roots and seeds purgative. Seeds crushed with water used as shampoo to darken hair colour. Crushed fruit mixed with oil rubbed on painful joints. Dry fruits effective insecticide.

prostrate, creeper with annual stems and perrenial root-stock, scabrid herbs with tendrils, sometimes over 1 meter long. Leaves alterenate, petiolate, triangular-ovate in outline 4-6 cm long, 3-4 cm wide, deeply runcinate-pinnatilobed, with 3-5 lateral lobes, villose-hirsute and crisped at the margin. Male and female flowers on short peduncles, yellow, mostly solitary; male flowers with 3 stamens. Pistillate flowers with inferior ovary and short style with 3 stigmas. Fruit globular, apple size, smooth, fleshy or dry indehiscent, with green to yellow undulate stripes, 4-10 cm in diameter. Seeds obovate, dark brown, flat, bitterest, about 6 mm long, 4 mm broad. 

Flowering from May-October.
Sandy and gravelly soils.
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