Family: Cucurbitaceae
Cucumis myriocarpus
Citation:
Naudin, Annls Sci. nat. sér. 4, 11:22 (1859).
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Paddy melon, gooseberry cucumber.
Description:
Trailing or climbing annual herb; stems to 2 m high, hispid; leaves with petioles 10-85 mm long; lamina broadly ovate in outline, 25-75 x 25-80 mm, 3-5-lobed, lobes obovate, dentate to lobulate, obtuse, apiculate, hispid on the lower surface, sparsely so above.
Male flowers in 2-4-flowered fascicles or short racemes with peduncles to 5 mm; pedicels 2-4 mm long; hypanthium c. 3 mm long; calyx lobes subulate, c. 1.5 mm long; corolla lobes ovate, 4-5 mm long, yellow; female flowers solitary or paired; peduncles 3-8 mm long; perianth similar to males; ovary ellipsoidal, attenuate, 2-3 mm long, setose.
Fruit subglobose, 15-25 mm diam., with scattered soft bristles to 6 mm long; green with paler longitudinal stripes, ripening yellow; peduncle 6-25 mm long; seeds 3-4 mm long.
Published illustration:
Telford & Marsden in Jessop (1981) Flora of central Australia, fig. 272E.
Distribution:
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All States. native to southern Africa.
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Conservation status:
naturalised
Flowering time: summer.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
No text
Author:
Not yet available
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