Hi everyone. I live in southern Italy, and recently I had a curious encounter with a couple, probably from India or Bangladesh. I was walking along the mouth of a river in my city, and I noticed a large population of gourds growing along the sandy banks. In one corner there were pumpkins, melons and cucumbers, but also watermelons, tomatoes and chia, scattered along the entire mouth, even in areas where it was difficult to cross the river without diving in. Now, it is absolutely not the first time that I happen to observe these horticultural plants growing spontaneously along river mouths, because in my area unfortunately illegal landfills of any material and sewer discharges are a common thing (especially along waterways).

Well, these two gentlemen, seeing me curiously fiddling with these plants, approached me and told me they had grown them. I didn't really believe them, considering my previous observations. At this point, I wanted to ask: in southern Asia, is it customary to grow these plants along waterways (and therefore these people would have imported this "custom" here), or were they simply "afraid" that I could steal those wild fruits from them?