Marah is a genus in the Cucurbitaceae family. Plants grow from an immense manlike underground tuber which is the reason behind one of the common names, Manroot. Although most species are deciduous, they grow rapidly as a vine with tendrils with both male and female flowers growing from the leaf axils. The male flowers are usually clustered in groups and the female flowers solitary. The fruit is not edible, but looks like a small melon and is the source of another common name, Wild Cucumber. Some of the species have spiny fruits.
Marah fabaceus grows along steams and embankments and in shrubby and open areas. It has yellowish green or cream-colored flowers or occasionally white (those found inland) rotate (spreading, with a short or non existent tube) flowers. The fruit is globe shaped with a spiny surface. It is found in California in the Sierra Nevada and the coast ranges. I believe these pictures taken on the bluff at Salt Point State Park are this species although Marah oreganus also grows in the park. Photos by Mary Sue Ittner.
Marah horridus grows on dry slopes in the Western Sierra Nevada foothills (California), south to Los Angeles. The male flowers are bell shaped and the divided leaves have jagged points on the margins. The fruit is oblong and spiny. Photo taken in Kern County by Mary Sue Ittner.
Marah macrocarpus is found on dry slopes from Santa Barbara, California south to Baja. The male flowers look like flat stars and the fruit is oblong and densely spiny. Johannes-Ulrich Urban holds a fruit he found in southern California. Photo by Bob Rutemoeller.
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Marah oreganus grows on slopes, in canyons and hilly areas and the edge of forests from San Francisco Bay area, California, north to British Columbia. Flowers are white, small, and bell like. The fruit is rounded, pointed on both ends and nearly smooth. I think these pictures taken by Bob Rutemoeller and Mary Sue Ittner are this species, but the first two could be Marah fabaceus since they were taken in Mendocino County, California where both species grow and I never realized that when the pictures were taken. The flowers look white, but only a little bell like. I'll need to try to go back and look at the fruits in the area where they grow to be sure. The last picture was taken near Ferndale, California in a habitat this species is usually found in.
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