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Plants sometimes shrublike in cultivated forms of C. melopepo, annual or perennial, monoecious, procumbent and trailing or climbing; stems <annual, often sulcate or angled>, hairy; roots tuberous or fibrous or a taproot; tendrils 2–7-branched or absent. Leaves: blade suborbiculate to broadly ovate, ovate-lanceolate, reniform, or triangular, usually deeply to shallowly palmately (3–)5(–7)-lobed, sometimes unlobed or 2-lobed, lobes depressed-ovate, ovate, broadly or narrowly triangular, or obovate to lanceolate, oblanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, or subrhombic, <base truncate to cordate>, margins serrate to denticulate or mucronulate, surfaces eglandular or glandular, glands scattered, sessile or stipitate to peltate. Inflorescences: staminate flowers solitary [in axillary fascicles]; pistillate flowers solitary, from different axils than staminate; floral bracts absent. Flowers: hypanthium campanulate, cylindric, or cupulate; sepals 5, <straight, erect>, subulate-linear to lanceolate [spatulate]; petals 5, <often recurving>, connate 1/2 length, cream or yellow to orange, broadly ovate to oblong-ovate, oblong-elliptic, triangular, triangular-ovate, or lanceolate-ovate, 25–90[–120] mm, pubescent to puberulent, corolla campanulate. Staminate flowers: stamens 3; filaments inserted at hypanthium base, distinct or slightly connate; thecae connate, forming central oblong body, sigmoid-flexuous, connective narrow; margins differentiated or not in thickness, texture, and color, surface smooth or slightly rough to punctate-sculptured. x = 20.
Annual or perennial herbs, usually monoecious, with scabrid, scandent or prostrate, running, ± succulent stems. Rootstock not tuberous. Tendrils usually branched. Lvs simple, mostly lobed, scabrid or hairy. Fls solitary, usually axillary, large. Calyx 5-lobed. Corolla yellow; lobes 5, extending to c. 1/2 way. Stamens 3; filaments free; anthers united, contorted. ♀ fls similar to ♂ but usually larger and fewer; staminodes 3, rudimentary. Ovary 3-locular, less commonly 5-locular; placentae 3-5; ovules numerous; stigmas 3-(5), 2-lobed. Fr. (pepo) large, variously shaped, indehiscent, consisting of an outer rind and soft ± pulpy interior, with central mass often breaking away from outer wall at maturity and forming a loose fibrous internal ball, with the rind then very hard and shell-like; peduncle persistent, sometimes strongly accrescent. Seeds numerous, flattened, usually white or pale brown, more rarely black; margin often raised.
Herbs, climbing or prostrate, annual. Stem and branches robust. Tendrils 2-to many fid. Leaf blade lobed, base cordate. Plants monoecious; flowers solitary, yellow. Male flowers: calyx tube campanulate, rarely elongate; segments 5, lanceolate or leaflike at apex; corolla campanulate, 5-lobed; stamens 3; filaments free; anthers connected into a head, one 1-celled, two 2-celled; anther cells linear, reflexed; connective not produced; pistillode absent. Female peduncle short; calyx and corolla as in male flowers; staminodes 3, broadly triangular; ovary oblong or globose, with 3-5-placentas; ovules numerous, horizontal; style short; stigmas 3-5-lobed or bifurcate. Fruit large, fleshy, indehiscent. Seeds numerous, compressed, smooth.
the middle, the apex of the lobes recurved; stamens 3, inserted on the hypanthiuml tube, the filaments free, the anthers linear, connate into a cylindrical column, 1 anther unilocular, 2 anthers bilocular, the theca flexuous; peduncle short. Pistil-late flowers solitary, axillary, short pedunculate; calyx and corolla as in the sta-minate flowers; ovary oblong, 3-to 5-locular, the ovules numerous, horizontal, the styles short, thick, the stigmas 3-5, bilobate or bifurcate, papillose; staminodia 3, triangular. Fruits fleshy and fibrous, sometimes woody, indehiscent, highly variable in shape, size, and color; seeds ovate or oblong, flattened, the margins tumid or emarginate, the testa smooth.
Monoecious; sep 5; cor yellow, campanulate, the 5 lobes recurved at the tip; stamens apparently 3, the filaments distinct, the anthers connivent and contorted; style 1, with 3 divided stigmas; fr a pepo; mostly trailing, annual or perennial herbs with forked tendrils, large, lobed or angled to merely toothed lvs, large yellow fls solitary in the axils, and large, firm-walled, many-seeded frs. 15, New World.
Annual or perennial, monoecious, tendriled vines; stems 5-to 10-sulcate, usually creeping. Leaves subentire and reniform or suborbicular to deeply pinnate or bipinnately divided; tendrils 2-to 5-branched. Staminate flowers solitary or fasciculate; calyx campanulate, rarely cylindrical, 5-lobate (rarely 4-to 7-lobate); corolla campanulate, 5-lobate (rarely 4-to 7-lobate) to or below
