Luffa aegyptiaca Mill.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Cucurbitaceae
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Scientific Name
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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.
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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.
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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|