Benincasa
Description
Stout herbaceous annual climber;
Leaves:
Flowers solitary, long-pedicelled, large;
Fruit a pepo, mostly waxy-whitish, smallish or large, indehiscent.
Seeds numerous, pale, compressed, margin only slightly thickened.
Distribution
East Malesia present, Pacific present
One species with two forms, the cultivated form with several cultivars. The precise area of the wild form is not known, but it is speculated to include East Malesia and the Pacific The species is mainly known by the widely cultivated form with edible fruits.