Cyclanthera brachystachya
Content
Description
Vigorous but slender climber to 5 m long, lanate or (finely) hairy on the nodes, later scabrous or glabrescent.
Leaves:
Fruit ripening green, 2-3 cm long, ovoid-reniform, with soft spines;
Seeds c. 8 per fruit, blackish brown, 9-14 by 6-8 mm, ± 5-angled, 3- (or 5-)toothed at base, 3-toothed at apex.
Distribution
America present, Asia-Tropical: Jawa (Jawa present), Cibodas Botanical Garden present
Tropical America; in Malesia: Java, locally cultivated for the young shoots used as a vegetable; in Cibodas Botanical Garden running wild.
Notes
A second species, C. pedata Schrad., with deeply pedately lobed leaves, usually appearing as pedately 5-7-foliolate, is widely distributed in Central and South America, and is introduced and locally commonly cultivated as a vegetable in mountainous areas in the southern Himalayas of India and in China. The species can be expected in the future in the Malesian area. It is mentioned () as occasionally cultivated in the Old World tropics, including Malaysia.