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:  3 species native to Africa and Asia; 2 species widely naturalised in Australia, both in S.Aust.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Leaves scabrid on both surfaces; seeds 5-9 mm long	C. colocynthis 1.
1. Leaves scabrid on the lower surface; seeds 9-12 mm long	C. lanatus 2.

Author: Not yet available