Black melon

Black melons were a type of melon and gourd that grew in the Jundland Wastes of the desert planet Tatooine. They were egg-shaped with a crackled black outer shell. Inside, they contained either water produced by the plant or a type of milk. Black melon milk was safe to drink for Tusken Raiders and humans, although Obi-Wan Kenobi once commented that it tasted horrible. Boba Fett also said that the taste took some getting used to.

Black melons were an important food item in Tusken Raider culture. During Kenobi's exile on Tatooine, he attempted to sell some during a Great Drought because citizens were dying due to a lack of water and much of the water they did have was taken as water taxes for Jabba the Hutt.

One tribe of Tuskens would force captured prisoners to dig for the fruit, which at one point included the bounty hunter Boba Fett after he was found exhausted by the Great Pit of Carkoon, and a Rodian prisoner. When Fett had attempted to drink a melon that he found, a Tusken youngling refused to let him drink, taking the melon and pouring it to a massiff instead. Later, they were attacked by a sand beast. Fett killed the creature, earning the respect of the tribe's chief, which handed Fett a melon to drink.

After Fett rescued Fennec Shand, he offered her a black melon, saying it would help her recover. Tuskens felt insulted when Cobb Vanth refused to drink the milk inside a black melon while camping out with a group of them.

Text and facts from the “Black melon” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.