32. Trichosanthes cucumeroides (Seringe) Maximowicz in Franchet & Savatier, Enum. Pl. Jap. 1: 172. 1873.
王瓜 wang gua
Stems slender, branched, grooved, pubescent. Petiole 3-10 cm, striate, densely pubescent; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially deep green, broadly ovate or orbicular, 5-13(-19) × 5-12(-18) cm, papery, usually shortly 3-5-lobed, sometimes unlobed; lobes triangular or ovate to obovate-oblong, abaxially densely shortly pubescent, adaxially tomentose, margin denticulate or serrate, apex obtuse or acuminate. Male peduncle 5-10 cm, striate, pubescent; bracts linear-lanceolate, 2-3 mm, pubescent, entire; calyx tube 6-7 cm, pubescent; segments linear-lanceolate, 3-6 × ca. 1.5 mm, entire, acuminate. Female flowers solitary; pedicel 0.5-1 cm; ovary oblong, densely pubescent. Fruiting peduncle 5-20 mm, pubescent; fruit orange-red, ovoid, ovoid-oblong, or globose, 6-7 × 4-5.5 cm, smooth, beaked. Seeds deep brown, oblong or triangular-ovate, 7-12 × 7-14 mm, 3-loculed; 2 lateral ones large, ca. 4.5 mm in diam. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Aug-Nov.
Dense forests along valleys, open forests on mountain slopes; (200-)600-1700 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, SE Xizang, Zhejiang [India, Japan].
One of us (Jeffrey) treats this species and its varieties as synonyms of Trichosanthes pilosa.
