Common Name: GOURD FAMILY Habit: Annual, perennial herb; hairs often hard from calcium deposits; generally monoecious. Stem: trailing or climbing, 1--many; tendril generally 1 per node, often branched. Leaf: generally simple, alternate, generally palmate-lobed and -veined, petioled; stipules 0. Inflorescence: at nodes; staminate flowers in racemes, panicles, small clusters, (or 1); pistillate flowers generally 1. Flower: unisexual [bisexual], radial; hypanthium > ovary; calyx generally 5-lobed (or +- 0); corolla rotate to cup- or bell-shaped, generally 5-lobed; stamens 3--5 (or +- 1--3 from fusion), anthers twisted together, often > filaments; ovary +- inferior, chambers 3--5, placentas parietal, styles 1--3, stigmas generally lobed, large. Fruit: berry, drying or not, or capsule, irregularly dehiscent, often gourd- or melon-like. Seed: 1--many. Genera In Family: 100 genera, 700 species: especially tropics; some cultivated (Citrullus, watermelon; Cucumis, cucumber; Cucurbita, gourd, pumpkin, squash; Luffa, loofah; Sechium, chayote). Note: Several cultivated species included Bryonia dioica reported as waifs in California (Howell 1958 Wasmann J Biol 16:1--157), but none recently. eFlora Treatment Author: John M. Miller & Robert L. Schlising Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.
NATURALIZED Fruit: large, green, generally striped or mottled with darker green; pulp white. Seed: white to black. Chromosomes: 2n=22. Ecology: Disturbed areas; Elevation: < 300 m. Bioregional Distribution: SW, DMoj; Distribution Outside California: western Mexico; native to southern Africa. Flowering Time: May--Aug Note:Citrullus lanatus var. caffrorum (Alef.) Fosberg evidently has priority and so would be correct name; widely cultivated; hybridizes with Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad.; Citrullus lanatus var. lanatus, cultivated watermelon, often escaped but not naturalized in California. Synonyms: Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad. var. lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai, ined.; Citrullus vulgaris Schrad. ex Eckl. & Zeyh., in part Jepson eFlora Author: John M. Miller & Robert L. Schlising Reference: Dane & Liu 2007 Genet Resources Crop Evol 54:1255--1265 Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Citrullus Next taxon: Cucumis
Citation for this treatment: John M. Miller & Robert L. Schlising 2012, Citrullus lanatus var. citroides, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=56575, accessed on April 18, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 18, 2024.
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
Data provided by the participants of the
Consortium of California Herbaria.
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