During the July 14 meeting at my garden, we looked at cucumber flowers
on a vine and noticed the difference between male and female flowers.  The male flowers aren't very interesting except they're necessary for pollination.  They're simply a flower at the end of a stem.  Cucurbit vines (cukes and squash) typically have male flowers set earlier than females.

The female flower is much more interesting and is distinguished by a tiny fruit at its base (the ovary), which will turn into an actual fruit if the flower is successfully pollinated.  Here is a series of photos of the flower that we looked at during the meeting as it eventually turned into a fruit.

The first photo was taken the morning after our meeting.  This is how the flower looked on the day before the morning it opened.  If I had another variety of cuke growing nearby and if I was planning to save seeds from this variety, I'd have to prepare to hand pollinate the next morning.

The second photo shows the flower the next day.  It had opened in

the morning and been pollinated, as you'll see in the next photos.

The bumble bees did the job for me, for which I'm grateful. 

When I last grew out this variety for seed it was the only variety growing within a half mile.

The next two photos show the small white cuke, just before and

just after picking this evening, my first of the season.  I direct

seeded on May 20, so it was 65 days to first fruit, which is almost

two weeks longer than my earliest harvest a few years ago.  I think

the cool, damp weather in late May and early June slowed it down.

Stuart

Thetford Center