e-Key v3 - Mukia
SANBI Flora Keys Logo
Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Cucurbitaceae - Mukia Arn.

Description :

  • Annual, monoecious, hispid climbers
  • Leaves 3-7-angled or -lobed
  • Tendrils simple
  • Flowers clustered, small, yellow
  • Male flowers fascicled: calyx campanulate, 5-dentate; corolla with 5-parted limbs; stamens 3, inserted at base of corolla, free, anthers extrorse, linear, straight, cohering, terminated by short, conical appendage of connective
  • Female flowers clustered: calyx and corolla as in male flowers; ovary ovoid, setulose, with 2 or 3 placentas, style short, with a fleshy, annular disc at base, stigmas 3, erect
  • Fruit a berry, globose, smooth or echinulate, few-seeded
  • Seeds turgid, oblong-oval, subcompressed, surrounded by a broad or narrow zone
  • x = 6 (1 report)

Nomenclature:

  • Mukia Arn.
    • Arnott: 50 (1840)
    • Jeffrey: 475 (1978)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 4, tropics of Old World
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Mukia maderaspatana (L.) M.J.Roem., Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal

References:

  • ARNOTT, G.W. 1840. Mukia . Madras Journal of Literature and Science 12
  • JEFFREY, C. 1978. Cucurbitaceae . Flora zambesiaca 4