Trichosanthes

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Trichosanthes

Description

Climber, wild or cultivated, perennial (annual), 3-30 m long, leafy stem 2-5 mm diam.; Leaves: Petals white, sometimes reddish veined, free, long-fringed, the fringes sometimes reddish or yellow. Fruits solitary (or few), ripening (orange-)red or green, often lighter striped, berry-like, exocarp leathery or woody, indehiscent, ellipsoid, globose or fusiform, 5-20 cm long (elongate, 100 cm long, in cultivated T. cucumerina var. anguina), smooth, hairy or glabrous; Seeds numerous, light or dark brown, grey (or black), compressed or tumid (with inflated sides), variable of shape, faces not or little sculptured, margin usually present, edge usually smooth, or crenate or undulate.

Distribution

Asia-Tropical, from India, South China and Japan, east to tropical Australia and Fiji present, subtropical and tropical eastern Asia present
About 100 species, throughout subtropical and tropical eastern Asia: from India, South China and Japan, east to tropical Australia and Fiji; in Malesia 43 species in 6 not well-defined sections.

Morphology

1 Flower characters: detailed characteristics of the flowers are sometimes left out because frequently only incomplete material is available. Moreover, the flowers are fragile, and not easy to analyse from boiled dry material. In Trichosanthes the general shape of the petals is either narrowly elliptic with long fringes all along the margins, in bud folded spherical, e.g. in T. pilosa; in other species general shape of the petals is obtriangular with the fringes shorter to the top, and the petals in bud folded in a more elongate body, e.g. in T. quinquangulata. We feel that this character state could be used for the distinction of sections. 3 Receptacle-tube and pseudo-ovary: the receptacle is of a tubular shape, widened towards the apex, usually with white (long) hairs inside. In some species, e.g. T. villosa, and T. intermedia, the receptacle-tube of the male flowers forms a pseudo-ovary, the swollen base of the tube, which contains disk-like structures. 2 Sepals: these are free, narrowly triangular, ovate, narrowly ovate, or narrowly elliptic, often with a long-acute apex; the margin is entire, or dentate, or (coarsely) laciniate, or lobed. These characters are of important taxonomic value, but one should be aware that in some species the sepals of female flowers are entire, whereas in male flowers they are dentate or laciniate. 5 Straw-like appendage: in the description of several Trichosanthes species from New Guinea a ‘straw-like appendage’ at the node is mentioned. This appendage originates either from the peduncle of the male raceme or from the pedicel of a solitary co-axillary male flower. 4 Peduncle: the male racemes are pedunculate, and the peduncle may be slender or (very) stout. In older male inflorescences the rachis may be thickened, bearing persistent old bracts and pedicels or pedicel scars. In some species the rachis is zigzag, e.g. in T. refracta.

Notes

Eleven keys are presented. The general keys 1 and 2 are for male flowering and female flowering/fruiting specimens respectively. The remaining keys, 3-11, are regional keys applicable for all collections.

Citation

Rugayah 1999: Trichosanthes (Cucurbitaceae) in Malesia, thesis
C.B.Clarke 1879 – In: Hook.f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 2: 606
Miq. 1856 – In: Fl. Ned. Ind.: 674
Lour. 1790: Fl. Cochinch.: 588
Keraudren 1975 – In: Aubrév. & J.-F.Leroy, Fl. Cambodge, Laos & Vietnam 15: 75
Cogn. 1881 – In: A.DC. & C.DC., Monogr. Phan. 3: 351
W.J.de Wilde & Duyfjes 2008 – In: Fl. Thailand: 514
Backer 1964 – In: Backer & Bakh.f., Fl. Java 1: 302
Blume 1826 – In: Bijdr.: 932