Coccinia

Wight & Arnott

Prodr. Fl. Ind. Orient. 1: 347. 1834.

Common names: Ivy gourd
Introduced
Etymology: Latin coccineus, scarlet, alluding to mature fruit of C. grandis
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 6. Treatment on page 44. Mentioned on page 3, 6, 33.
 TaxonIllustrator 
FNA6 P07 Citrullus lantanus.jpegCitrullus lanatus subsp. lanatus
Coccinia grandis
Lagenaria siceraria subsp. siceraria
Yevonn Wilson-Ramsey
Yevonn Wilson-Ramsey
Yevonn Wilson-Ramsey

Plants perennial, dioecious, climbing or trailing; stems annual, glabrous or glabrate [flocculent-arachnoid]; roots tuberous; tendrils unbranched [2-branched]. Leaves: blade broadly ovate to rounded-cordate, subreniform, or deltate, unlobed or palmately 5-angular or lobed, lobes deltate or triangular to broadly angular-elliptic, margins denticulate, adaxial surface with circular, sessile scales [hirsute to hirsutulous], often with glands on both sides of midrib near petiole. Inflorescences: staminate flowers solitary, [clustered, racemose, or in spikes], axillary; pistillate flowers solitary, axillary [racemose]; bracts absent. Flowers: hypanthium campanulate to turbinate; sepals 5, linear to subulate; petals 5, connate 1/2 length, bright white, often slightly green-veined [brownish yellow or orange], ovate to ovate-triangular, [8–] 15–20 [–62] mm, hirtellous or puberulent-hirtellous to glabrate, corolla campanulate. Staminate flowers: stamens 3; filaments inserted near hypanthium base, connate; thecae connate into central column and forming central oblong body, sigmoid-triplicate, connective broadened; pistillodes absent. Pistillate flowers: ovary 3-locular, ovoid to fusiform; ovules ca. 15–40 per locule; style 1, narrowly columnar; stigma 1, 3-lobed; staminodes 3. Fruits pepos, usually green with white streaks or lines, sometimes red to scarlet at maturity, broadly cylindric to ellipsoid-cylindric, smooth, glabrous, indehiscent, flesh whitish to greenish. Seeds 30–50 [–120], asymmetrically pyriform [ovoid or broadly ellipsoid], compressed, arillate, margins thickened or not bordered, surface fibrillose. x = 12.

Distribution

Introduced; s, se Asia (India), se Asia (Malaysia), Africa, also in Pacific Islands

Discussion

Species ca. 30 (1 in the flora).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

... more about "Coccinia"
distinct +  and connate +
Guy L. Nesom +
Wight & Arnott +
broadly ovate;rounded-cordate subreniform or deltate unlobed or palmately 5-angular or lobed +
tubular +, saucer--shaped +, campanulate +  and rotate +
Ivy gourd +
campanulate +
s +, se Asia (India) +, se Asia (Malaysia) +, Africa +  and also in Pacific Islands +
Latin coccineus, scarlet, alluding to mature fruit of C. grandis +
furrowed +  and echinate +
dehiscent +  and indehiscent +
bristly +, smooth +, hairy +  and glabrous +
tuberculate +  and muricate +
fleshy +  and hard +
whitish +  and greenish +
pistillate +  and staminate +
red +  and scarlet +
perennial +
dioecious +  and monoecious +
campanulate;turbinate +
umbellate;subumbellate +
solitary +, corymbose +, fasciculate +, racemose +  and paniculate +
petiolate +, estipulate +  and simple +
triangular;broadly angular-elliptic +
denticulate +
ovoid;fusiform +
green-veined +
induplicate-valvate +  and imbricate +
2 cm20 mm <br />0.02 m <br /> (6.2 cm62 mm <br />0.062 m <br />) +
bright white +
puberulent-hirtellous +  and glabrate +
ovate;ovate-triangular +
1.5 cm15 mm <br />0.015 m <br /> (2 cm20 mm <br />0.02 m <br />) +
Prodr. Fl. Ind. Orient. +
compressed +  and pyriform +
linear;subulate +
Introduced +
climbing +  and procumbent +
sprawling +  and prostrate +
glabrate;glabrous +
columnar +
fibrillose +
Coccinia +
Cucurbitaceae +
plant +  and climbing +