Family: Cucurbitaceae
Citrullus
Citation:
Schrader, in Ecklon & Zeyher, Enum. Pl. Afr. aust. extratrop. 279 (1836).
Derivation: Latin citrus, orange; alluding to the orange-like fruit.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: None
Description:
Trailing or climbing annual herbs or with perennial rootstocks producing annual stems; stems variously hairy; tendrils simple or 2-4-branched; leaves ovate in outline, deeply palmately to pinnately 3-5-lobed, mostly scabrid.
Male flowers solitary; peduncle subtended by a bract; hypanthium campanulate; calyx 5-lobed, lobes lanceolate; corolla deeply 5-lobed, lobes ovate, yellow; stamens 3, inserted at the base of the hypanthium; anthers basifixed, 2 2-locular, 1 1-locular, locules flexuose; disk absent; female flowers solitary; perianth similar to males; ovary subglobose to ellipsoid, pilose; ovules many, horizontal; stigma 3-lobed; staminodes 3; disk absent.
Fruit large, fleshy, firm-skinned, indehiscent, subglobose to ellipsoid; seeds many, ovate, compressed, more or less smooth.
Distribution:
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3 species native to Africa and Asia; 2 species widely naturalised in Australia, both in S.Aust.
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Biology:
No text
Key to Species:
Author:
Not yet available
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