Trichosanthes obscura Rugayah

Species

Angiosperms > Cucurbitales > Cucurbitaceae > Trichosanthes

Characteristics

Climber, 6-8 m long, finely greyish brown hairy, glabrescent, leafy stem 3-4 mm diam.; dioecious. Probract (ob)ovate, 4-8 mm long, subentire, minutely papillose hairy, glands absent. Tendrils 2-or 3-branched. Leaves: petiole 3-6 cm long; blade dull blackish on drying, membranous, simple, unlobed or 3-lobed, 1/3-2/3 deep, in outline ovate or circular, 7-20 by 8-18 cm, finely scabrous above or papillose hairy, glands few or absent, mainly towards the base, 1-2 mm diam., cystoliths occasionally on petiole and veins, margin entire or undulate-dentate, apex slenderly acuminate; veins 5(-7), straight or curved. Male raceme finely brown hairy, to 30 cm long, including the 8-14 cm long and 2-3 mm thick peduncle; rachis not thickened, c. 4 cm long, 5-10-flowered; bracts broadly rhomboid or obovate, 15-20 by c. 15 mm, margin finely fan-shaped incised to nearly halfway, glands absent. Male flowers (from bud): pedicel c. 5 mm long, caducous; receptacle-tube c. 15 mm long, at throat 5-7 mm wide; sepals narrowly ovate, 5-7 mm long, c. 3 mm wide at base, margin narrowly lobed; petals and stamens not seen. Female flowers: pedicel c. 15 mm long; ovary glabrescent, subglobose, 10-15 mm long; receptacle-tube c. 20 mm long; sepals narrowly elliptic, 5 mm long. Fruit pale green with whitish dots, ripening evenly bright orange, (depressed-)globose, c. 7 by 9 cm; exocarp woody, smooth, c. 1 mm thick; pericarp juicy, dry pericarp 1 mm thick; pulp green-black; fruiting pedicel 2-3 cm long, c. 5 mm thick. Seeds compressed, (narrowly) elliptic, with a faint lengthwise ridge in the middle, 18-22 by 7-8 by 2 mm, base and apex obtuse-truncate, margin broad but faint, edge entire.
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Growth form herb
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Sexuality
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Mature height (meter) 6.0 - 8.0
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Environment

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Hardiness (USDA) 10-12

Usage

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Edible -
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Cultivation

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Germination duration (days) 14 - 30
Germination temperacture (C°) 18 - 23
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Distribution

Trichosanthes obscura world distribution map, present in Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, and Malaysia

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:1007763-1
WFO ID wfo-0000408664
COL ID 58JPD
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID -
Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Trichosanthes obscura