Zehneria thwaitesii (Schweinf.) C.Jeffrey

Species

Angiosperms > Cucurbitales > Cucurbitaceae > Zehneria

Characteristics

Climber or trailer to 1.2 m.; roots fibrous; stems slender, glabrous or slightly hairy, smooth or slightly rough.. Leaf-blade triangular, hastate or sagittate, ± scabrid-punctate above, smooth and glabrous except for a few hairs on nerves beneath, subentire or ± sinuate-dentate or rarely lobulate, 23–91 mm. long, 22–110 mm. broad; lobes triangular or rarely ovate-triangular, minutely apiculate; petiole 12–54 mm. long.. Monoecious.. Male flowers 1–3, axillary, or at nodes on 30–95 mm. long leafless shoots with shortened internodes and then appearing racemose; pedicels slender, 4.5–15 mm. long; receptacle-tube campanulate, 1.5–2 mm. long; lobes triangular-subulate, 0.3–0.8 mm. long; petals white, becoming cream when older, 2–4 mm. long, 1–2 mm. broad, united at the base; stamens 3, subsessile.. Female flowers solitary on slender 7–40 mm. long pedicels; ovary fusiform, sometimes slightly collared at the base, 3.5–16 mm. long, 0.5–1.5 mm. across; receptacle-tube cylindrical to broadly campanulate, 1–2.5 mm. long; lobes subulate, 0.5–1.5 mm. long; petals 2–6 mm. long, 1.5–2.5 mm. broad, united at very base.. Fruit pendulous on a 5–37 mm. long stalk, fusiform, smooth, glabrous, 15–45 mm. long, 7–14 mm. across.. Seeds ovate in outline, compressed, narrowly bordered, smooth, 3.5 × 2 × 0.5 mm.. Fig. 21/11, 12, p. 120.
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Leaf-lamina 2–9 × 2·7–9·5 cm., membraneous, broadly ovate, ovate, broadly triangular or triangular in outline, subtruncate, weakly cordate, hastate or sagittate at the base, finely scabrid-punctate above, shortly setulose on veins beneath, plane or usually remotely and minutely sinuate-denticulate at the margins, unlobed or shortly to very deeply palmately 3-lobed, the lobes triangular to linear, ± acuminate, obtuse to acute, apiculate, the central largest.
male flowers solitary, axillary; pedicels 8–24 mm. long, slender. Receptacle-tube 1–2·5 mm. long, lobes 0·3–1·5 mm. long, dentiform. Petals 1·5–6 mm. long, white, becoming cream with age.
Female flowers solitary, often co-axillary with male; pedicels 7–61 mm. long, slender; ovary 6–12 × 1–2 mm., fusiform. Perianth as in male flowers.
Seeds 3·2–4·4 × 2·0–2·5 × 0·3–0·5 mm., ovate in outline, smooth bi-convex.
Fruit 15–45 × 7–14 mm., fusiform, red; pedicel 10–53 mm. long.
Petioles 0·9–4·0 cm. long, shortly setulose.
Stems slender, glabrous or sparsely pilose.
Flowers monoecious.
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Growth form herb
Growth support climber
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Sexuality monoecy
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Root system fibrous-root
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Hardiness (USDA) 9-12

Usage

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Edible leaves
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Cultivation

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Images

Zehneria thwaitesii unspecified picture

Distribution

Zehneria thwaitesii world distribution map, present in Angola, Burundi, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, India, Kenya, Liberia, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Malawi, Mayotte, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Chad, Togo, Tanzania, United Republic of, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:294484-1
WFO ID wfo-0000430217
COL ID 7GD2Y
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID 807578
Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Aechmandra deltoidea Melothria thwaitesii Cucumella thwaitesii Zehneria thwaitesii Melothria zeylanica Melothria tridactyla var. angustiloba