Taw manroot Taw manroot

Echinocystis watsonii Cogniaux in A. L. P. P. de Candolle and C. de Candolle, Monogr. Phan. 3: 819. 1881

Leaf blades deeply 5-lobed, 3–8 cm wide, <surfaces glaucous abaxially>. Flowers: sepals (pistillate) linear-subulate, 1 mm; petals 4–5 mm (pistillate) or 2.5–3 mm (staminate), corolla white, deeply cupulate to campanulate; staminodia present in pistillate flowers. Capsules often striped dark green, globose or depressed-globose to short-ellipsoid, 2–3.5 cm, surface smooth to sparsely echinate or muriculate, spinules weak, 1–2 mm. Seeds 1–4, globose, not compressed, 11–14 mm.

Flowering Mar–May(–Jun). Oak and pine-oak grasslands, oak woodlands, yellow pine woodlands, chaparral, rocky slopes and outcrops, roadsides; 100–800(–1300) m; Calif.

Marah watsonii is distributed in about 15 counties in north-central California.