Habit: Annual, perennial herb, from large, fleshy, tuber-like root.
Stem: glabrous to scabrous; tendril branched or not.
Leaf: lanceolate to round, entire to deeply lobed.
Inflorescence: flowers 1 per node, staminate, pistillate at different nodes.
Flower: corolla > 2 cm wide (staminate generally < pistillate), deeply cup-shaped, yellow to orange, fused part 4--12 cm, lobes generally recurved; stigmas 3, 2-lobed.
Fruit: spheric to oblong, indehiscent; rind firm, smooth to rough or grooved.
Seed: many, < 20 mm, +- ovate, +- flat; margin thick or raised.
Species In Genus: 12--14 species: America.
Etymology: (Latin: gourd)
Jepson eFlora Author: John M. Miller & Robert L. Schlising
Reference: Sanjur et al. 2002 Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99:535--540
Unabridged Reference: Montes-Hernandez & Eguiarte 2002 Amer J Bot 89:1156--1163; McVaugh 2001 Cucurbita In W.R. Anderson (ed), Flora Novo-Galiciana 3:510--529, Univ Michigan Herbarium, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Decker 1988 Econ Bot 42:4--15Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Cucurbita
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