These wild cucumbers however have nothing to do with the wild cucumber of North America, known as manroot, which are shorter, rounder and spiky.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2007-11-01] Reference

Thanks for giving clues for " manroot".    From Wordnik.com.  [At My Table] Reference

There have been some pretty silly metaphors used in romances in the past i.e. manroot and I wonder if that hasn’t led to a distrust of all use of metaphor among some romance readers.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary » The Element of Style » Print] Reference