Cucurbitaceae
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Authority
Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.
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Family
Cucurbitaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Description - Herbaceous vines, usually with tendrils. Leaves alternate, petioled, generally palmately lobed or dissected. Flowers monoecious or dioecious. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, its limb usually 5-lobed, the lobes imbricated. Petals usually 5, inserted on the limb of the calyx, separate, or united into a gamopetalous corolla. Stamens mostly 3 (sometimes 1), 2 of them with 2-celled anthers, the other with a 1-celled anther; filaments short. often somewhat monadelphous. Ovary 1-3-celled; style terminal, simple, or lobed; ovules anatropous. Fruit a pepo, indebiseent, or rarely dehiscent at the summit, or bursting- irregularly; or sometimes dry and membranous. Seeds usually flat; endosperm none. About 90 genera and 700 species, mainly of tropical regions.