Octogourds

Name: Kolokynthi, Cucurbitaceae Kolokynthi



Description: Kolokynthi, commonly titled Octogourds, are a water-grown, semi-common gourd found throughout the Milky Way, either growing in the wild or sold in many places. Resemblance to the earthen gourd, the Pumpkin, are uncanny. 

The fruit produced by the plant is a thick-skinned, spherical fruit belonging to the Cucurbitaceae family with a ribbed texture that sports a tough, wood-like stem and can range in size from the size of a human heart to twice the size of any common space-faring biped's head. Commonly, the exterior color of these fruit match the water in which they are grown; while sea green and pale blues are most common, some can come to develop a tinge of deep blue, red, browns and likely more. 

Perhaps the most defining feature of the Octogourd is the fact that the fruit itself grows a number of medium-length, thick ‘roots' from the stem of the gourd, typically six to eight, though slightly more or less may grow due to defects. These roots never grow longer than the diameter of the gourd they're growing from, and are used for what you'd expect; dangling in the water and absorbing nutrients from it, or, in the case of Kolokynthi that grow in particularly shallow water, the soil beneath the body of said water it's in. The Kolokynthi's nickname, the Octogourd, was coined due to the fact that a fully matured one resembles the now-extinct Earth cephalopod, the Octopus; the gourd itself making up the head, and the roots floating in the water resembling tentacles once removed from the water and placed on dry land.

Unlike pumpkin plants, which can grow to be a magnificent tangle of vines and leaves, the Kolokynthi's actual plant is far less assuming. Once the plant seed arrives at a patch of calm water, it begins to sprout and grow both upwards into a lime-green flower with a fairly short stem and leaves on the side of said stem, and downwards into the water with several long, green roots with several smaller, shorter and wiry ones coming off of them, with the seed's brownish outer shell eventually flaking off and floating away in the water as the green grows out of it. As time passes, the stem begins to grow into the gourd. At full maturity, the plant will now vaguely resemble a gourd floating stem-up in the water with a flower and a few leaves (two, on average) on top of it. Given that the plant itself grows directly into the gourd, a single seed equates to only a single Octogourd at most.


Behavior: The Octogourd, being a plant, doesn't do or think anything. It just sort of rides the waves, growing and photosynthesizing until it dies off or it's plucked from the water to be used for various things.


Tamability: No. It's a plant.


Location(s): The Kolokynthi can generally be found anywhere fish can, ranging from large ponds, to lakes, to sometimes even the coastal areas of seas. Usually, they tend to be found in calm patches of water near land, as harsh waves or currents tend to buffet the plant unfavorably and prevent it from growing properly when still a seed, hence why finding them near the ocean or sea is relatively uncommon. Granted, since it's also a crop, and a common one at that, they can be found in shops ranging from produce stands to supermarkets, usually in multiple colors too.


Rarity: Thanks to spacefaring species spreading the plant's seeds from its originally native planet, Kolokynthi can be found in a variety of locations on many planets. If a location has calm, cleanish water, sunlight, and isn't either extremely hot or cold, Octogourds can probably grow there, making them relatively common.


Diet/Method of gaining nutrients and energy: Being a plant, Kolokynthi use roots for nutrient absorption from either sediment or water, and use leaves for photosynthesizing food.


Products: The main product of a Kolokynthi is the water-colored gourd that it grows into, predictably. With Earth's destruction and thus, familiar gourds like pumpkins becoming less common, the Kolokynthi is often used in its place throughout the stars in its place due to its universal attainability and extremely similar appearance. Circles that still celebrate Halloween, for instance, will carve Octogourds into Jack-o-Lanterns (sometimes called "Cthulhulanterns” instead to match with the tentacled appearance its roots grant), though this feat is often more difficult as the actual gourd's innards being more solid and less like a pulp compared to a pumpkin, requiring stronger work with a knife to carve through the harder surface. The gourd can also be used for the culinary arts, as both the innards and seeds of the plant can be used for cooking.


Reproduction: Being a plant, asexually; the actual gourd of the Octogourd houses several pistachio-sized seeds near the core of the fruit. Once the plant begins to die and the gourd starts rotting away, these seeds fall out of the innards to be carried away by the water. Unless they're carried too far away and drowned by harsher water conditions, or eaten by animals in or around the body of water, they eventually grow into new plants.


Size: The plant itself will typically grow to a size ranging from 9” to 24” in diameter. Sometimes smaller, sometimes larger.


Weight: Despite being the same size, Kolokynthi are often lighter than pumpkins in order to permit buoyancy, weighing in anywhere from 10-23 pounds.


Lifespan: If left in water and undisturbed for its entire life, Kolokynthi can live up to a surprising 3 years before rot begins to overtake them. If removed from the water and never replaced - say, set on someone's front porch as decoration - they tend to only last up to 100-120 days instead.


Abilities: Octogourds don't really do anything special. Perhaps their only admirable trait is the way the plant is able to somehow stay upright when growing into a gourd, preventing the leaves and flower from drowning.


Flaws: Unlike pumpkin plants, which can gestate a number of fruits, the Kolokynthi plant itself is actually what grows into the perceived gourd; thus, a single seed is single-use before death.


Other: The roots of the gourd are noted to be attached to the bottom of it extremely strongly, hence why the roots are often left on the plant when taken out of the water to be used as decoration.