Telfairia

Taler pumpkin ( Telfairia pedata ), female plant

Telfairia is a small genus of the Cucurbitaceae family with three species in tropical Africa. Two species are regionally grown as food crops.

Features

The species are dioecious vines that can be 30 feet long up to. You have three to seven times fußförmig divided leaves and tendrils two-piece. Bracteoles absent.

The flowers are large and purple. The male flowers are in many-flowered clusters. The corolla tube is short and broad, toothed calyx lobes. The five petals are free and with long frayed threads. They have five or three stamens. In all five are bithekisch; in three have two stamens four counters and a two counters. The stamens are not connected and put on the flower tube. The counter tops are straight or slightly curved.

The female flowers appear singly. Your perianth similar to male. The ovary is ribbed. The numerous ovules are horizontal. The scar is three-lobed.

The fruit is large, fleshy, ribbed and vielsamig. It opens with 10 longitudinal flaps. The seeds are large, broadly oval to almost round in outline, and flat. They are embedded in a fibrous endocarp shell.

System

The genus was named in 1827 by William Jackson Hooker after the Irish physician and botanist Charles Telfair ( 1778-1833 ). In the classification based on morphological characteristics of C. Jeffrey ( 2005), the genus within the family Cucurbitaceae is placed in the subfamily Cucurbitoideae, Tribe Joliffieae, where it forms the subtribe Telfairiinae together with Odosicyos. DNA sequence analyzes show the genus within the paraphyletic tribe Joliffeae as a sister taxon of the clade ( Ampelosicyos Tricyclandra Odosicyos ).

In the genus three types are provided:

• Telfairia batesii Keraudren is only from the type specimen from Cameroon known.
• Telfairia occidentalis Hook.f. from tropical West Africa to the Congo Basin
• Taler pumpkin ( Telfairia pedata ( Sims ) Hook. ) In tropical East Africa from Tanzania to Southern Mozambique

Documents

• S. A. Ajayi, M.E Dulloo, R. S. Vodouhe, P. Berjak, J.I. Kioko: Conservation status of Telfairia spp. in sub- Saharan Africa. In: R. Vodouhe, K. Atta - Krah, G. E. Achigan - Dako, O. Eyog - Matig, H. Avohou (ed.): Plant Genetic Resources and Food Security in West and Central Africa. Biodiversity International 2007, ISBN 978-92-9043-750-5 (online pdf 136 kB)
• C. Jeffrey: Telfairia in. Flora Zambesiaca, Volume 8, 1978 ( online) (characteristics )