Man-roots
Marah
Marah (the manroots, wild cucumbers, or cucumber gourds) are flowering plants in the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), native to western North America. The genus (which Kellogg noted was characterized by extreme bitterness) was named for Marah in the Book of Exodus, which was said to be named for the bitter water there.
Except for the isolated range of Marah gilensis (Gila manroot) in west-central Arizona and island populations (M. macrocarpus var. major), all manroot species inhabit overlapping ranges distributed from Southern Canada to Northern Mexico. Although Marah oregana (coastal manroot) extends inland into Idaho, all other manroot species except M. gilensis are confined to areas within 300 km of the Pacific Ocean coast.
8 branches of this genus, most-observed first
Chilicothe
speciesMarah macrocarpa
California manroot
speciesMarah fabacea
coastal manroot
speciesMarah oregana
Gila manroot
speciesMarah gilensis
taw man-root
speciesMarah watsonii
Sierra man-root
speciesMarah horrida
Island Manroot
speciesMarah guadalupensis
Marah micrantha
speciesMarah micrantha
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Marah in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 53145.