Monographs Details:
Authority:
Acevedo-RodrÃguez, Pedro. 2005. Vines and climbing plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 51: 1-483.
Acevedo-RodrÃguez, Pedro. 2005. Vines and climbing plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 51: 1-483.
Family:
Cucurbitaceae
Cucurbitaceae
Description:
Description - Herbaceous vines, monoecious or dioecious, climbing by simple axillary or lateral tendrils, without latex. Leaves alternate, petiolate; blades simple, entire, palmatilobed or 3-5-foliolate; stipules absent. Flowers unisexual, actinomorphic; calyx campanulate or infundibuliform, with 5 minute lobes; corolla campanulate or rotate. Staminate flowers in axillary cymes with elongate peduncles; stamens 2, sessile, inserted on the tube of the receptacle, the anthers free, linear, the connective prolonged into an appendage; pistillodes absent. Pistillate flowers solitary or in groups of 2-4; staminodia 2, minute; ovary inferior, oblong, bicarpellate, with numerous horizontal ovules, the style terminal, simple, the stigmas 2, bifurcate. Fruit a cylindrical or ovoid berry, quadrangular or sulcate; seeds numerous, compressed, oblong. A neotropical genus of about 12 species, distributed from Mexico to Paraguay, including the Antilles.
Description - Herbaceous vines, monoecious or dioecious, climbing by simple axillary or lateral tendrils, without latex. Leaves alternate, petiolate; blades simple, entire, palmatilobed or 3-5-foliolate; stipules absent. Flowers unisexual, actinomorphic; calyx campanulate or infundibuliform, with 5 minute lobes; corolla campanulate or rotate. Staminate flowers in axillary cymes with elongate peduncles; stamens 2, sessile, inserted on the tube of the receptacle, the anthers free, linear, the connective prolonged into an appendage; pistillodes absent. Pistillate flowers solitary or in groups of 2-4; staminodia 2, minute; ovary inferior, oblong, bicarpellate, with numerous horizontal ovules, the style terminal, simple, the stigmas 2, bifurcate. Fruit a cylindrical or ovoid berry, quadrangular or sulcate; seeds numerous, compressed, oblong. A neotropical genus of about 12 species, distributed from Mexico to Paraguay, including the Antilles.