Citrullus

Bitter melon ( Citrullus colocynthis ), illustration.

The Citrullus are a small genus of flowering plants of the gourd family ( Cucurbitaceae ). These types have natural distribution areas in Southern Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean region, Africa and tropical Asia. Best known is the watermelon ( Citrullus lanatus ).

Description

The Citrullus species are creeping up climbing, annual or perennial herbaceous plants. The stems are hairy. Your alternate, stalked, simple leaves are three-to five-lobed, deeply incised and often divided further. Stipules absent. There are trained simple or branched tendrils.

They are monoecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( monoecious ). The solitary, unisexual flowers are fünfzählig and radial symmetry. The five sepals are fused bell-shaped. The five yellow petals are fused to about the middle. The male flowers contain three free stamens. The female flowers contain three staminodes and a hairy, inferior ovary with a stylus and a three-lobed stigma.

The often almost spherical fruit is a berry. It contains many large, flat, smooth, dark seeds.

System

In the genus Citrullus there are four types:

• Colocynth ( Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad. ): This perennial species is cultivated in many countries and is also wild.
• Citrullus ecirrhosus Cogn. Homeland is the capensis.
• Watermelon ( Citrullus lanatus ) with wild forms in southern Africa and cultivated worldwide.
• Citrullus rehmii De Winter: home is Namibia.

The trivial name Tsamma melon is used for both Citrullus ecirrhosus as well as for the wild Citrullus lanatus lanatus var form of use.

Swell

• Description in the Flora of Pakistan. (English )
• Entry in GRIN.