34. Benincasa Savi, Bibliot. Ital. Giorn. Lett. 9: 158. 1818.
冬瓜属 dong gua shu
Authors: Anmin Lu & Charles Jeffrey
Camolenga Post & Kuntze.
Herbs, creeping, annual, all parts densely hispid. Leaves palmately 5-lobed; petiole eglandular. Tendrils 2- or 3-fid. Plants usually monoecious; flowers solitary. Male flowers: calyx tube broadly campanulate; segments reflexed, almost leaflike, dentate; corolla rotate, usually 5-lobed; segments obovate, entire; stamens 3, free, inserted on corolla tube; filaments short; anthers one 1-celled, two 2-celled; anther cells very sigmoid-flexuous; connective margined; pistillode glandlike. Female flowers: calyx and corolla as in male flowers; staminodes 3; ovary ovoid; ovules numerous, horizontal; style inserted on disk; stigmas 3, expanded, 2-lobed. Fruit large, oblong, baccate, terete, hispid, glaucous, indehiscent. Seeds numerous, ovoid-oblong, compressed, margin tumid.
One species: cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, including China.
