They are actually grown on long vines that resemble cucumber vines. The luffas themselves look like strange cucumbers, as you can see from the pictures below.
I was able to give the luffas for holiday gifts. They just about took over my garden because they require so much space, though, so I'm not sure I will grow them again. They were fun to grow though! My kids had fun helping with the harvest.
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This is how the luffa starts out. 
This is a young luffa that is not ready to pick. It is really heavy and mushy on the inside.
 When the luffa becomes light and hollow-feeling inside, it is ready to harvest. Some turn a brownish shape on the outside as well, which is a good indication that they are ready. Luffas require a long growing season and even though I got my seeds in the ground really early I still had to discard a lot of luffas that were not yet mature. When you harvest the luffa, you bang the luffa on the hard ground to crack the outer shell, peel off the rough, shell-like outer skin, squeeze the black pumpkin-like seeds and pulp out, and then rinse several times with water to get the sap out. Then you squeeze as much moisture as you can out of the luffa and dry in the sun. As it dries, it becomes firm and rigid. 
Here is about half of my season's harvest, all dried and ready to use! I cut the ends off of the luffa to make more uniform shapes, and then cut them in half. As you can see, each luffa can get to be more than a foot long!
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