Marah gilensis  Bur Cucumber
PERENNIAL.  Grows from a large tuber.  Delicate vines with thin leaves sprout after winter or summer rains and grow up into trees or form tangled mounds on the ground.  Leaves light green, slightly rough hairy, with five to seven pointed lobes.  Flowers in spikes, greenish white, star-shaped, mealy or powdery looking.  Fruit small (to 3 cm), oval, with long spines, papery when ripe.  Blooms in March-May, withers by June.  May also sprout after summer rains.  In the Empires, occasional under mesquite or other trees in desert grassland and in Davidson Canyon.
FAMILY:  Cucurbitaceae  (Cucumber Family)