Luffa aegyptiaca Mill.

  • 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 aegyptiaca Mill.

  • Description

    Species Description - Monoecious herbaceous vine to 10 m long, with many lateral branches; stems nearly cylindrical or angular, with numerous longitudinal ribs, glabrous or puberulent; tendrils axillary, 3-branched. Leaf blades 11-25 x 7-25 cm, chartaceous, with coarse hairs on both surfaces, palmately 3-7-lobed, with deep sinuses, the lobes lanceolate to ovate, with acute or acuminate apices, the base cordate, the margins entire to serrate; petioles as long as or longer than the blade, furrowed. Flowers solitary or in axillary racemes, the pistillate ones on long receptacles. Calyx green, 1.2-1.5 cm long; corolla yellow, the petals obovate to cuneiform, rounded or notched at apex, 2-4.5 X 1-4 cm long; stamens 5, included. Fruit smooth, nearly cylindrical, 20-45 cm long, green, straw-colored when dried. Seeds elliptic, 1-1.3 cm long, nearly black, smooth.

  • Discussion

    Momordica luffa L., Sp. PL 1009. 1753.

    Momordica cylindrica L. , Sp. PL 1009. 1753. Luffa cylindrica (L.) M . Roem. ex T. Durand & H. Durand, Syll. Fl. Congol. 299. 1909, non M . Roem., 1846.

    Luffa cylindrica M . Roem., Prospect Fam. Nat. Syn. Monogr. 2: 63. 1846.

    Common names: sponge cucumber, strainer vine.

  • Distribution

    Spontaneous after cultivation. Turner Bay (A4066). Also on St. Croix and St. Thomas; native to the Old World, but cultivated and now spontaneous throughout the tropics.

    Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America|