A gourd is a hollow, dried shell of a fruit in the Cucurbitaceae family of plants of the genus Lagenariagourd Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved 6 September 2006gourd Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 Edition. Retrieved 6 September 2006.. Gourds can be used as a number of things, including bowls or bottles. Gourds are also used as resonating chambers on certain musical instruments including the berimbau and many other stringed instruments and drums. Instruments of this type are fairly common to the Caribbean. Gourds are also used as a tool for sipping yerba mate by means of a bombilla, in Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, where it is called "cuia" (kOOya). Birdhouse gourds, (Lagenaria siceraria), are commonly used in southern USA for group housing for purple martins, which reputedly help control mosquitoes. "Gourd" can also refer to the live fruit before it is dried, or to the entire plant that produces that fruit.

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