Monoecious or sometimes dioecious, rather small, annual or perennial climbers or trailers
Leaves usually ± palmately lobed
Tendrils simple
Flowers small, yellow
Male flowers solitary or, more often, in small fascicles, pedicellate; calyx: receptacle tube campanulate, lobes small; petals united below; stamens 3, two 2-thecous, one 1-thecous, shortly arising from tube, connective shortly produced apically, thecae straight, subparallel, sometimes apically hooked; disc elevated, convex
Female flowers solitary, pedicellate: perianth as in male flowers; staminodes, when present, 3; ovary smooth, hairy, ovules many, horizontal; disc surrounding base of style, stigma 3-lobed
Fruit rather small, fleshy, hairy, sometimes scabrid, ellipsoid and sometimes beaked, or fusiform, indehiscent
Seeds small, ovate or elliptic, compressed, lenticular
Nomenclature:
Cucumella Chiov.
Chiovenda: 183 (1929)
Kirkbride: 161 (1994)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species 11, mostly Africa, also Asia
Southern Africa: Species 4, Namibia, Northern Province, Mpumalanga
References:
CHIOVENDA, E. 1929. Cucurbitaceae, Cucumella. Flora Somala 1:183
KIRKBRIDE, J.H. 1994. Revision of Cucumella. Brittonia 46
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Welcome to Biodiversity Advisor 2.0!
Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
The integrated information comes from our much-loved Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA) also known as Plants of Southern Africa (POSA), Zoological Database of Southern Africa (ZODATSA), Biodiversity Geographic Information System (BGIS), SANBI's institutional repository (Opus) and others.
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In future, Team SANBI will be able to log in using their day-to-day login details, BGIS users will be able to use their existing accounts and details, and general users will be able to log in using their LinkedIn profile, but for now you will need to create an account.
