the dried fibrous part of the fruit of a plant of the genus Luffa; used as a washing sponge or strainer

any of several tropical annual climbers having large yellow flowers and edible young fruits; grown commercially for the mature fruit's dried fibrous interior that is used as a sponge

The luffas (from Arabic لوف; also spelled loofah or loofa) are tropical and subtropical annual vines comprising the genus Luffa. The fruit of at least two species, L. acutangula and L. aegyptiaca, is grown to be harvested before maturity and eaten as a vegetable, sometimes called Chinese okra, popular in Asia and Africa. L. acutangula is also known as Ridge Gourd and is called jaati lau in Assamese, si1gua1 in Mandarin Chinese, jhingey in Bengali, turai in Hindi, heeray kAyi in Kannada, wetakolu in Sinhala, mướp khía in Vietnamese language, patola in Tagalog, kabatiti in Ilocano, and gambas or oyong in Indonesia.