What's going on with the two starts to this article? Someone who knows more about standard form than me needs to take a look at it. The contents box is two-thirds of the way down... 86.146.222.98 03:54, 20 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

EN

It needs translating into English too.

Questionable Claims

Does anyone buy this: It has also been found that gourd skins were used to replace missing portions of skulls in Neolithic times as part of surgery. This is seen as evidence of prostheses made of very fine gold sheet and gourd skins, which were inserted in the skull under the skin or to cover the hole left by the operation.

It is a rather extraordinary claim, and unsourced. If no one can back it up I'll delete it in a few days. Stargate70 (talk) 20:04, 10 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That was over a year ago and it's still there...... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.47.157.201 (talk) 20:00, 28 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Don't eat gourds!

In Pahrump, NV, in the middle of the desert is a field of wild gourds growing. Looking like watermelons, I stupidly ate one and it was the most bitter...it was the strongest bitter taste I ever tasted, and eat Korean food frequently!

I feel somebody needs to address this in the article, and to avoid gourds at all cost as food! Coffee4binky (talk) 18:02, 30 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think that you just found some bitter watermelon. If you go to the Wiki watermelon article, it talks about them.174.6.130.25 (talk) 10:39, 4 November 2009 (UTC)BeeCier[reply]

Merger

I oppose merging this article with Calabash. "Gourd" means two things - a type of squash-like fruit, and a dried-out shell. Calabash is specifically the latter.

Waitak (talk) 00:09, 20 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

"Day-blooming gourds are pollinated the same way as squash"

Tell what that way is instead of referring to something else. I'd do it myself, but I have no idea how squash are pollinated. Do they have little dicks? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.197.163.72 (talk) 08:38, 1 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Gourds dry with a hard shell.

-this is what differentiates them from pumpkins which collapse and rot. Some species overlap the two, others do not. The proposed merge of calabash and gourd is an error. calabash encompasses at least two species or subspecies of gourds. I'm not going to look them up, but one calabash, such as the african wine kettle, is typically green with very thick flesh, large in size and has a walnut shaped seed and always drys with a hard shell. The birdhouse gourd, also a calabash, is similar in appearance, but is altogether different. They are typically smaller, lighter in weight and have a bone-shaped seed and always dry with a hard shell. The pepo species encompasses most decorative small colorful gourds, as well as traditional orange carving pumpkins and other large hard-shell gourds. They are NOT in the calabash family of gourds. some pepo species dry with a hard shell, others do not. Calabash is a type of gourd, but not the only type. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gabeknapton (talk • contribs) 21:27, 1 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]