Melothria pendula, Melothria scabra.
Botanical name:
Melothria pendula Linn. Cucurbitaceae.
North America and West Indies. The fruit, in Jamaica, is the size and shape of a nutmeg, smooth, blackish when ripe, and full of small, white seeds like other cucumbers, lodged within an insipid, cooling pulp. The fruit is eaten pickled when green and is good when fully ripe, according to Sloane.
Melothria scabra Naud.
Mexico. The fruit is an inch long, resembling little watermelons. It is pickled and eaten raw.
Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, 1919, was edited by U. P. Hedrick.
Comments
From Meg:
"I've read many places that Melothria pendula is pretty nasty and quite a laxative/purgative when eaten ripe (and perhaps mildly so when eaten in large quantities when green -- though I can attest that it is quite tasty then). You might want to look into it further as your page on it gives no indication of that."