Leaf blades deeply palmately 3–5-lobed to weakly 3-lobed or nearly unlobed. Pistillate flowers: hyaline bristle at apex of hypanthial aculei 0.5–1 times as long as opaque base. Pepos prominently aculeate, aculei 4–10(–15) mm.

Flowering Jul–Oct. Disturbed areas; 0–100(–500) m; introduced; Ala., Fla., Ga., Mont., Tex.; Africa; introduced also in West Indies.

The gherkins are escaped in a few, scattered localities in the United States, mostly in Florida, and it is not even clear that they are naturalized as reproductive populations.