Wikipedia Article About Cucuzza on Wikipedia The calabash (not to be confused with the calabaza, a winter squash) is a vine grown for its fruit, which can either be harvested young and used as a vegetable or harvested mature, dried, and used as a bottle, utensil, or pipe. For this reason, one of the calabash subspecies is known as the bottle gourd. The fresh fruit has a light green smooth skin and a white flesh. The calabash was one of the first cultivated plants in the Americas, grown not for food but as a container.