Dioecious, climbing or scandent plants, with (always ?) tuberous rootstock
Leaves ovate, cordate
Tendrils 2-fid
Male flowers on long pedicels in subumbellate fascicles: calyx small, rotate, 5-lobed; corolla rotate, 5-partite, segments linear-oblong or ovate-oblong, with 2 somewhat larger than others, with margin recurved; stamens 4, connivent in pairs and a staminode, filaments linear, somewhat incurved, ± as long as anthers, fleshy, anthers 1-thecous, slightly curved, sometimes connective tailed; ovary 0, rudimentary style sometimes present
Female flowers: calyx and corolla as in male; stamens 0; ovary 3-locular, with pendulous ovules in each locule, styles 3, free, short, conical, stigmas shortly reniform, with sinus uppermost
Fruit dry, terete, ribbed, 3-valved at apex
Seeds oblong-lanceolate, biconvex, with a membranous wing as long as seed at one end; testa pustulate, somewhat woody; cotyledons oblong, straight; radicle straight
Nomenclature:
Gerrardanthus Harv. ex Hook.f.
Hooker: 840 (1867)
Meeuse: 8 (1962)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species 5, Africa
Southern Africa: Species 2, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape
References:
HOOKER, J.D. 1867. Cucurbitaceae. In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker, Genera plantarum 1. Reeve, London
MEEUSE, A.D.J. 1962. The Cucurbitaceae of southern Africa. Bothalia 8
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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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