Plants annual, monoecious, climbing; stems glabrous or sparsely puberulent; roots fibrous; tendrils 2-branched. Leaves: blade broadly to shallowly triangular, usually shallowly palmately 3(–5)-lobed to hastate, lobes triangular to deltate, margins entire or denticulate, surfaces eglandular. Inflorescences: staminate flowers 20–40 in axillary, compound racemes; loosely enclosing flowers, irregularly sinuate-dentate to incised. Flowers: hypanthium cupulate; sepals 5, filiform-subulate; petals 5, connate 1/3–1/2 length, white, triangular-lanceolate, 1–1.5 mm, stipitate-glandular along margins, without other hairs, corollas salverform. Staminate flowers: stamens 3; filaments inserted at hypanthium base, connate into central column; thecae connate, forming head, sigmoid, connective slightly broadened; pistillodes absent. Pistillate flowers: ovary 1-locular, ovoid; ovules 1 per locule; style 1, narrowly columnar; stigmas 1, capitate, 3-lobed; staminodes absent. Fruits pepos, whitish, ellipsoid-ovoid, compressed, dry at maturity, smooth, glabrous, indehiscent. Seeds 1, ovoid, compressed, not arillate, margins not differentiated, surface smooth.

Distribution

sw United States, nw Mexico.

Discussion

Species 1.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Sicyosperma gracile