Mukia maderaspatana

Content

Description

Climber to 4 m long, stem scabrous or stiff-hairy. Leaves: Fruit 1-5(-8) in axillary clusters, green and pale green striped, ripening red, darker striped or not, globose, 0.5-1.5 cm diam., glabrous or with few coarse hairs; Seeds 10-20, whitish or pale brown, obovoid, moderately compressed, 3-4 by 2-2.5 by 1.5-2 mm, margin narrow, ± rounded, faces not separated by a groove, faces convex, variously warted, or pitted or nearly smooth.

Distribution

Africa present, Asia-Tropical: Borneo present; India present; Jawa (Jawa present); Lesser Sunda Is. present; Malaya (Peninsular Malaysia present); Maluku (Maluku present); New Guinea present; Pakistan (Pakistan present); Philippines (Philippines present); Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka present); Sulawesi (Sulawesi present); Sumatera (Sumatera present), Indo-China to Australia present, Papua New Guinea present, Ryukyu Is present, SW and SE Asia present, West Papua present, Yemen present, north-east and east to China present

Widespread: Africa, SW and SE Asia, including Yemen, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, north-east and east to China, Ryukyu Is., Indo-China to Australia (where very variable in indumentum, including villose); in Malesia: Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Java, Philippines, Sulawesi, Lesser Sunda Islands, New Guinea (West Papua and Papua New Guinea); no collections seen from Moluccas.

Taxonomy

3 The collection Henty NGF 49703 (see Fig. 45), from savanna in East Papua New Guinea, differs in having a delicate habit, long-pedicelled, minute, slender male flowers, a 5-10 mm long pedicel, the connective of anthers not produced, solitary female flowers and fruits, the fruit c. 1.2 cm diam., containing c. 25 scrobiculate seeds, and in not up-curved hairs on the petiole. Its determination as M. maderaspatana is provisional. 1 Specimens from savanna areas in eastern Papua New Guinea (e.g. Heyligers 1176, Darbyshire 696, Henty & Katik NGF 38646, and Pullen 6804) have comparatively large fruits, c. 1.5 cm diameter. Pullen 6804 will be accommodated into a new species of Cucumis by Sebastian et al., PNAS (2010). 4 Plants may be perennial with a thick old woody rootstock or annual and soon flowering, with fibrous roots. The specimens Raap 499 and Insani SAN10 (Java) will be placed by Sebastian et al., l.c., into a separate species Cucumis althaeoides, but we cannot corroborate this on morphological grounds. 2 The discriminating character of the of curving of the hairs on the petiole, viz. upward in M. maderaspatana and downward in M. javanica works well in most material of SE Asia and West Malesia. However, one should be aware that in some specimens from East Malesia (where M. javanica does not occur) the position of the hairs may be ad variance: sometimes retrorse in Lesser Sunda Islands or often erect or curved to all directions in New Guinea.

Citation

Craib 1931: Fl. Siam. Enum.: 764

I.Telford 1982: p. 183. – In: Fl. Australia: f. 40: a-g

C.Jeffrey 1969 – In: Hooker’s Ic. Pl.: 5

Keraudren 1975: p. 60. – In: Aubrév. & J.-F.Leroy, Fl. Camb., Laos, Viêt-Nam 15: f. 10: 9

Cogn. 1916 – In: Engl., Pflanzenr. 66: 126

Backer 1964 – In: Backer & Bakh.f., Fl. Java 1: 298

M.Roem. 2008: p. 475. – In: Fl. Thailand: pl. 35: 2

C.B.Clarke 1879 – In: Hook.f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 2: 623

W.J.de Wilde & Duyfjes 2006 – In: Thai Forest Bull.: 43

Miq. 1856 – In: Fl. Ned. Ind.: 658

Blume 1826 – In: Bijdr. Fl. Ned. Ind.: 926

H.Schaef. 2007 – In: Blumea: 167