Luffa

• Authority

  Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

• Family

  Cucurbitaceae

• Scientific Name

  Luffa

• Description

  Genus Description - Monoecious, tendriled, herbaceous vines. Leaves simple, 5-7-lobed. Flowers unisexual, large and actinomorphic, calyx bellshaped, with 5 elongate lobes; corolla of 5 free petals; staminate flowers in axillary racemes, with 3-5 free stamens; pistillate flowers solitary, with 3 staminodes, the ovary elongate, with numerous horizontal ovules. Fruit rounded to obtusely trigonous in cross section, opening by apical pores, mesocarp fibrous; seeds many, flattened, winged or unwinged.

• Distribution

  A genus of about 10 species, native to the Old World.