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, climbing by axillary tendrils, 3-5-fid; without latex; stem tuberous at the base. Leaves alternate, petiolate; blades simple, palmatilobed; stipules absent. Flowers unisexual, actinomorphic; calyx campanulate, with 5 minute lobes; corolla campanulate or rotate, the lobes deep. Staminate flowers in axillary racemes or panicles with elongate peduncles; stamens 5, the filaments united to one another to form a central column, the anthers sigmoid; pistillodes absent. Pistillate flowers solitary or in pairs, smaller than the staminate flowers, axillary to the staminate inflorescence; ovary inferior, obovoid, uniearpellate, with a pendulous ovule, solitary, the style terminal, simple, short, the stigma subglobose. Fruit indehiscent, fleshy, pyriform, sulcate, spinulose; seed one, large, compressed, germinating inside the fruit. A genus native to Central America, of about 5 species.
Description - Herbaceous vines, monoecious, climbing by axillary tendrils, 3-5-fid; without latex; stem tuberous at the base. Leaves alternate, petiolate; blades simple, palmatilobed; stipules absent. Flowers unisexual, actinomorphic; calyx campanulate, with 5 minute lobes; corolla campanulate or rotate, the lobes deep. Staminate flowers in axillary racemes or panicles with elongate peduncles; stamens 5, the filaments united to one another to form a central column, the anthers sigmoid; pistillodes absent. Pistillate flowers solitary or in pairs, smaller than the staminate flowers, axillary to the staminate inflorescence; ovary inferior, obovoid, uniearpellate, with a pendulous ovule, solitary, the style terminal, simple, short, the stigma subglobose. Fruit indehiscent, fleshy, pyriform, sulcate, spinulose; seed one, large, compressed, germinating inside the fruit. A genus native to Central America, of about 5 species.