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  1. Family: Cucurbitaceae Juss.

    1. Coccinia Wight & Arn.

        2. This genus is accepted, and its native range is Tropical & S. Africa, Tropical & Subtropical Asia to SW. Pacific.

    [FZ]

    Cucurbitaceae, C. Jeffrey. Flora Zambesiaca 4. 1978

    Habit
    Scandent perennial herbs.
    Leaves
    Leaves simple, petiolate or sessile, usually very variable in shape.
    Tendrils
    Tendrils simple or proximally 2-fid.
    Bracts
    Probracts present.
    Receptacle
    Receptacle-tube usually short and broad, obconic-campanulate; lobes entire, often small, remote and dentiform, sometimes larger.
    Corolla
    Corolla distinctly gamopetalous, 5-lobed, lobes entire.
    Stamens
    Stamens usually 3, all 2-thecous, less often two 2-thecous, one 1-thecous; filaments inserted on receptacle-tube, usually ± connate or at least coherent into a central column; anthers connate or coherent into a globose head, rarely free; connectives broad; thecae flexuous.
    Flowers
    Female flowers solitary or rarely racemose; ovary smooth; ovules many, horizontal; stigma 3-lobed. Male flowers solitary, clustered or shortly racemose. Flowers creamy-white to deep orange-yellow, sometimes with a pinkish tinge, dioecious.
    Fruits
    Fruit globose to ellipsoid-rostrate or cylindrical, usually terete, thin-walled, fleshy, bright red when mature.
    Seeds
    Seeds ovate in outline, ± compressed; testa fibrillose or minutely rugulose, pale-coloured.
    [FTEA]

    Cucurbitaceae, C. Jeffrey. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1967

    Habit
    Medium-sized climbers or trailers
    Leaves
    Leaves simple, usually very variable in shape
    Tendrils
    Tendrils simple or proximally bifid
    Bracts
    Probracts present
    Flowers
    Flowers medium to large, orange-buff, yellow or brownish-yellow, rarely whitish, often green-veined, dioecious Female flowers solitary or rarely racemose; ovary smooth; ovules many, horizontal; stigma 3-lobed Male flowers solitary, clustered or more usually shortly racemose; receptacle-tube relatively short and broad; lobes entire, often small and dentiform, less often large and calyx-like; corolla distinctly gamopetalous, 5-lobed; lobes entire and devoid of basal scales inside; stamens usually 3, all 2-thecous, sometimes two 2-thecous, one 1-thecous, more rarely stamens 2 or 4; filaments inserted on the tube, connate or coherent apically or sometimes along their whole length then forming a central column, less often free; anthers connate or more usually coherent at the base into a globose head, rarely free; connectives broad; thecae triplicate and usually also transversely ± convoluted
    Male
    Male flowers solitary, clustered or more usually shortly racemose; receptacle-tube relatively short and broad; lobes entire, often small and dentiform, less often large and calyx-like; corolla distinctly gamopetalous, 5-lobed; lobes entire and devoid of basal scales inside; stamens usually 3, all 2-thecous, sometimes two 2-thecous, one 1-thecous, more rarely stamens 2 or 4; filaments inserted on the tube, connate or coherent apically or sometimes along their whole length then forming a central column, less often free; anthers connate or more usually coherent at the base into a globose head, rarely free; connectives broad; thecae triplicate and usually also transversely ± convoluted
    Female
    Female flowers solitary or rarely racemose; ovary smooth; ovules many, horizontal; stigma 3-lobed
    Fruits
    Fruit small to moderately large, globose to elongate-cylindrical, fleshy, terete or less often longitudinally ribbed, baccate, indehiscent, with thin pericarp, red or red mottled with green
    Seeds
    Seeds small, ± compressed, ovate in outline; testa fibrillose
    Figures
    Fig. 8.

    Images

    Distribution

    Native to:

    Angola, Assam, Bangladesh, Benin, Borneo, Botswana, Burundi, Cabinda, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, Central African Repu, Chad, China South-Central, China Southeast, Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Free State, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gulf of Guinea Is., Hainan, India, Ivory Coast, Jawa, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Laccadive Is., Laos, Lesotho, Lesser Sunda Is., Liberia, Malawi, Malaya, Mali, Maluku, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Pakistan, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South China Sea, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sulawesi, Swaziland, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Uganda, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Yemen, Zambia, Zaïre, Zimbabwe

    Introduced into:

    Andaman Is., Brazil Southeast, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Fiji, Florida, French Guiana, Guyana, Hawaii, Leeward Is., Marianas, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nicobar Is., Northern Territory, Puerto Rico, Queensland, Suriname, Taiwan, Texas, Tonga, Trinidad-Tobago, Wake I., Western Australia, Windward Is.

    Coccinia Wight & Arn. appears in other Kew resources:

    First published in Prodr. Fl. Ind. Orient.: 347 (1834)

    Accepted by

    • Holstein, N. (2015). Monograph of Coccinia (Cucurbitaceae) PhytoKeys 54: 1-166.
    • Govaerts, R. (1999). World Checklist of Seed Plants 3(1, 2a & 2b): 1-1532. MIM, Deurne.

    Literature

    Flora of West Tropical Africa
    • —Cogn. in DC. Monogr. 3: 528.
    Flora Zambesiaca
    • Prodr. Pl. Ind. Or.: 347 (1834).
    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • Prodr. Pl. Ind. Or.: 347 (1834)

    Sources

    Flora Zambesiaca
    Flora Zambesiaca
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

    Kew Backbone Distributions
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2019. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

    Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2019. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0