'Vegemelon' Turns Out Not to Be News

Tim and Karen Dusenbery made nationwide news earlier this month with what they called a "cuculoupe" _ a 3-foot-long somethingorother that sprang up in their garden, about midway between the cantaloupes and the cucumbers.

Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa even sampled one live _ well, the broadcast was live; the melon was sliced _ on "Live with Regis and Kelly."

Now, Louisiana State University's Agricultural Center has issued a news release saying the initial authentication by one of its agents of the so-called cuculoupe was wrong. "Further study revealed it isn't a new vegetable or fruit after all," the release said.

The center said the half-dozen vegemelons in the Dusenbery's Houma, La., garden probably were Armenian cucumbers, which are grown by some people in the area.

The skin is waxy, sort of like a cucumber, but yellow and ridged like a cantaloupe.

Botanically speaking, cantaloupes and cucumbers are both in the Cucurbit family, but they're different species. Species generally cannot crossbreed, though there are occasional exceptions. The mule, for instance, is a cross between horse and donkey.

"My understanding is that, no, you can't pollinate a melon with a cucumber and get any kind of a viable cross. Now, having said that, I'm probably completely all wrong," said Gene E. Lester, a plant physiologist at the USDA Crop Quality and Fruit Insects Research station in Weslaco, Texas.

It's highly unlikely that cucumbers and cantaloupe would cross-fertilize, said Tim Ng, chair of the Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative and a professor of plant sciences at the University of Maryland.

"I know a lot of people have tried" to cross-fertilize the two species without success, though there also have been "rumors" about the existence of such a plant, Ng said.

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On the Net:

Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative: http://www.umresearch.umd.edu/CGC/

The Cucurbit Network: http://www.cucurbit.org