Key to Cucurbitaceae

View taxon page for Cucurbitaceae

Jepson Manual glossary definitions can be seen by moving your cursor over words underlined with dots.

1. Corolla white to ± green or cream, < 2 cm wide; staminate flowers generally in racemes, 

panicles 

1. In flowering plants excluding Asteraceae, Cyperaceae, Poaceae, and some other groups, a branched inflorescence in which the basal or lateral flowers (or some of them) open before the terminal or central flowers on any axis. 2. In Asteraceae, Cyperaceae, Poaceae, and some other groups, a panicle-like inflorescence is one in which at least some of the inflorescence units (e.g., heads in Asteraceae; spikelets in Cyperaceae and Poaceae), instead of individual flowers, are attached (stalked or unstalked) to branches and not directly to the main axis of the inflorescence and in which floral development may or may not proceed as in 1.

, or small clusters, pistillate flowers 1 or in small clusters, generally at same 

nodes 

Position on a stem from which one or more structures (especially leaves, buds, branches, or flowers) arise.

as staminate; fruit generally prickly, irregular-dehiscent or not; seeds generally not flat

2. Staminate flower < 3 mm wide; fruit 

asymmetric 

Not divisible into identical or mirror-image halves.

, < 1 cm, beak ± = body; D ..... BRANDEGEA

2' Staminate flower >= 3 mm wide; fruit ± symmetric, > 2 cm, beak << body or 0; CA-FP, D ..... MARAH

1' Corolla yellow to orange, generally 2–12 cm wide; staminate, pistillate flowers 1–few, generally at different nodes; fruit generally unarmed (prickly in some Cucumis), gourd- or melon-like, 

indehiscent 

Not opening inherently to release contents; usually pertaining to fruits.

; seeds ± flat

3. Corolla > 3 cm wide, deeply cup-shaped, fused part > 3 cm; annual or 

perennial 

Completing life cycle (germination through death) in more than two years or growing seasons, generally non-woody (at least above ground) to woody; includes perennial herbs as well as subshrubs to trees; the abbreviation 'per' only refers to perennial herb, not to the word 'perennial' alone.

 herb from large, tuber-like root ..... CUCURBITA

3' Corolla generally < 3 cm wide, shallowly 

rotate 

Wheel-shaped, spreading, or saucer-shaped; often applied to a fused corolla with a short or nonexistent tube and a spreading limb.

to cup-shaped, fused part < 1 cm; annual

4. Tendril branched; fruit > 6 cm wide; 

leaf 

Organ arising from a stem, generally composed of a stalk (petiole) and a flat, expanded, green, photosynthetic area (blade); distinguished from a leaflet by the presence in its axil of a bud, branch, thorn, or flower; sometimes with lateral, basal appendages (stipules); either simple (toothed, lobed, or dissected but not divided into leaflets) or compound (divided into leaflets).

± palmately lobed, 1° 

lobes 

1. A major expansion or bulge, such as on the margin of a leaf, sepal, or petal, or on the surface of an ovary. 2. The free tips of otherwise fused structures, such as sepals or petals; larger than teeth.

± pinnately lobed ..... CITRULLUS

4' Tendril unbranched; fruit 2–6 cm wide; leaf angular or ± palmately lobed, 1° lobes, if present, ± 

entire 

Having margins that are continuous and smooth (i.e., without teeth, lobes, etc.).

or irregularly lobed ..... CUCUMIS

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