For several months, I've been admiring the upright, fuzzy, grey-green leaves of a wild vine which is spreading along the roadways of Cochise County. With the help of John Hamilton, a field research expert, who is working with-the BLM at the Sail Pedro Riparian National Conservation Office, I finally identified it and some other wild vines.

The three illustrated here are annual gourds with yellow flowers and green to cream colored round fruit. Their velvet-looking leaves are actually uncomfortably prickly. All parts of the plants give off an unpleasant, rotten-onion odor when touched or cut (which is why I made these drawings outside, even though it was raining).

The plants are also very bitter tasting, and are usually considered toxic. Careful preparation of specific parts, though can yield medicines, high protein foods, oils, and insect-attractants (see Gathering the Desert by Gary Paul Nobhan).

The large silver leaved vine is the Buffalo Gourd, Cucurbitus foetidissima. Brighter green, geranium shaped ruffled rounder leaves are found on the Melon Loco vine, Apodanthera undulata. The coyote melon, Cucurbitus digitata, has delicate, starburst leaves, dark green on the outer margin and white to light creamy pink along the middle. Coyotes, cattle, and most mammals avoid all these vines, but the javelina sometimes consider them a tasty meal.