The cucumber is a widely-cultivated creeping vine plant in the family Cucurbitaceae that bears cylindrical to spherical fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables. Considered an annual plant, there are three main types of cucumber—slicing, pickling, and seedless—within which several cultivars have been created. The cucumber originates in Asia extending from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, China, and Northern Thailand, but now grows on most continents, and many different types of cucumber are grown commercially and traded on the global market. In North America, the term wild cucumber refers to plants in the genera Echinocystis and Marah, though the two are not closely related.
Image: ARS cucumber
Image: Cucumber BNC
Cucumis sativus flower
Lobster, Crab, and a Cucumber by William Henry Hunt (watercolour, 1826 or 1827)
A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent stems, lianas, or runners. The word vine can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.
Momordica charantia (bitter melon), a climbing plant
A tendril
Convolvulus vine twining around a steel fixed ladder
Boston ivy covering a chimney