Dioecious, much-branched, spiny shrub or scrambler
Leaves
rudimentary or palmatifid
Tendrils
spine-like or 0
Male flowers
axillary, solitary or subfascicled: calyx 5-lobed, tube ± campanulate or obconical, leathery, lobes ovate; corolla 5-lobed, lobes ± quadrate, subtruncate, ribbed, glandular-papillose; stamens 3 or 5, inserted in calyx tube, filaments free, broadly linear, villous, anthers 2-thecous or with one 1-thecous, connective dilated; pistil rudimentary, 2-lobed or 0
Female flowers
solitary: calyx and corolla as in male, but more leathery; staminodes present; ovary ovoid, with 3-5 placentas and many ovules, tuberculate, stigmas 3-5, capitate, 2-lobed or depressed and saucer-shaped (sometimes all forms in a single flower)
Fruit
subglobose, ± size of a large orange, covered with hard protuberances, many-seeded, indehiscent
Seeds
elliptic, subcompressed, smooth
Nomenclature:
Acanthosicyos
Welw. ex Hook.f.
Hooker: 824 (1867)
Meeuse: 52 (1962)
Launert & Roessler: 5 (1968)
Jeffrey: 433 (1978)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species 2, Africa
Southern Africa
: Both in southern Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Free State, Northern Cape
References:
HOOKER, J.D. 1867.
Cucurbitaceae
. In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker,
Genera plantarum
1. Reeve, London
JEFFREY, C. 1978.
Cucurbitaceae
.
Flora zambesiaca
4
LAUNERT, E. & ROESSLER, H. 1968.
Cucurbitaceae
.
Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika
94
MEEUSE, A.D.J. 1962. The
Cucurbitaceae
of southern Africa.
Bothalia
8
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