General: Buffalo Gourd (Cucurbita foetidissima) is an annual or weak perennial forb with large, triangle-shaped leaves that grows as a spreading vine on the ground. The plant produces large, orange, funnel-shaped flowers uncharacteristic of the desert, and these are followed by 3- to 4-inch diameter green gourds with light stripes. In time, the gourds dry, blow away, and break open to release a payload of seeds.

A similar species, Coyote Melon (Cucurbita palmata), has palmately-dissected (shaped like a hand with fingers).

Buffalo Gourd is an uncommon component of vegetation communities in dry, well-drained gravelly and sandy areas on bajadas into the lower mountains in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.

Around Las Vegas, look for Coyote Melon along roadsides at Floyd Lamb Park in Las Vegas and Corn Creek on Desert NWR.

Family: Gourds (Cucurbitaceae). Also known as Calabazilla.