Annual herb to 0.6 m tall and 2 m wide

Stem: thick, branched, sprawling-ascending, covered with glandular hairs, foul-scented.

Leaves: opposite, upper leaves sometimes alternate, long-stalked, to 25 cm long, rounded to kidney- or heart-shaped, irregularly wavy to non-toothed, covered with dense glandular hairs, foul-scented.

Flowers: borne in clusters (racemes) of eight to twenty. The petals are dull white to lavender with spotted purple and yellow, 3.5 - 5.5 cm long, fused into a tube that is swollen on one side, somewhat two-lipped, and five-lobed.

Fruit: a four-chambered capsule with a fleshy outer covering, the covering splitting along two lines to separate from the woody center, 10 - 20 cm long, with two long curved beaks at the tip.

Similar species: Proboscidea louisianica ssp. louisianica has foul-scented, glandular hairy stems and leaves, and large two-beaked fruit, making it easy to identify in the Chicago Region.

Flowering: July to September

Habitat and ecology: Introduced from farther south. This species is rare in the Chicago region, growing in open areas with sandy soil.

Occurence in the Chicago region: non-native

Notes: This species is sometimes cultivated to make pickles.

Etymology: Proboscidea means snout-like, referring to the long beaks of the fruit. Louisianica means "from Louisiana."

Author: The Morton Arboretum

This plant has been reported from five of the southern counties. It is probably native in the Ohio Valley and the Lower Wabash Valley. Clapp records it in his list in 1834. A specimen in the herbarium of Indiana University was collected by Young in Jefferson County in 1877. Authors report it as being found in sandy habitats, especially along the Ohio and Wabash Rivers. It has been cultivated and one finds it as an occasional escape. I have found it three times in Wells County but in each instance it was introduced by some means or other. Once it was introduced with some strawberry plants.