View source for Melothria

{{Treatment/ID
|accepted_name=Melothria
|accepted_authority=Linnaeus
|publications={{Treatment/Publication
|title=Sp. Pl.
|place=1: 35. 1753
|year=1753
}}, {{Treatment/Publication
|title=Gen. Pl. ed.
|place=5, 21. 1754
|year=1754
}}
|common_names=Melonette
|basionyms=
|synonyms=
|hierarchy=Cucurbitaceae;Melothria
|hierarchy_nav=<div class="higher-taxa"><div class="higher-taxon"><small>family</small>[[Cucurbitaceae]]</div><div class="higher-taxon"><small>genus</small>[[Melothria]]</div></div>
|etymology=Greek melothron, ancient name for some fruiting vine, probably Bryonia
|volume=Volume 6
|mention_page=page 3, 7
|treatment_page=page 39
}}<!--

--><span class="statement" id="st-undefined" data-properties=""><b>Plants </b>herbs, perennial [annual], monoecious, climbing, trailing, or creeping; stems annual, glabrous or hispid [pilose]; roots tuberous; tendrils unbranched. <b>Leaves</b>: blade ovate-reniform, cordate-pentangular, suborbiculate to depressed-ovate, ovate, ovate-triangular, or lanceolate-hastate, subentire or shallowly to deeply palmately 3–5-lobed or -angled, lobes deltate to shallowly triangular, margins denticulate [dentate, shallowly sinuate, or subentire], surfaces eglandular. <b>Inflorescences</b>: staminate flowers 2–6 in axillary racemes or corymboid to subumbelloid clusters; pistillate flowers solitary, usually in same axils as staminate; bracts absent. <b>Flowers</b>: hypanthium campanulate; sepals 5, triangular to ovate, straight; petals 5, connate 1/2 length, yellow or orange-yellow [white or pale orange], oblong to ovate-oblong or obovate-oblong, 1.5–2[–3.5] mm, glabrous or villosulous, corolla rotate to campanulate-rotate. <b>Staminate</b> flowers: stamens 3; filaments inserted near hypanthium base or near mid tube, distinct; thecae distinct, oblong, connective broadened; pistillodes present, nectariferous. <b>Pistillate</b> flowers: ovary 3-locular, globose to ovoid or fusiform; ovules ca. 15–20 per locule; style 1, short-columnar; stigmas 3, 2-lobed; staminodes 3 or absent. <b>Fruits</b> pepos, greenish, often striped or mottled, apparently usually maturing yellow to orange or purplish black, usually ellipsoid to ovoid, sometimes subglobose to globose, (0.8–)1–2.5 cm, smooth, glabrous, indehiscent. <b>Seeds</b> 30–60, ovoid to ellipsoid, compressed, not arillate, margins not differentiated, surface smooth, white-sericeous. <b>x</b> = 12.</span><!--

-->{{Treatment/Body
|distribution=United States;Mexico;West Indies;Central America;South America;introduced in Asia.
|discussion=<p>Species 12 (1 in the flora).</p><!--
--><p>The concept of <i>Melothria</i> was considerably narrowed by C. Jeffrey (1962), leaving the genus an entirely New World taxon characterized by long-peduncled fruits and staminate racemes, compressed seeds, and three stamens per flower, two of which are 2-thecous and the other 1-thecous. The segregated (or revived) genera Mukia Arnott (four species), Solena Loureiro (one species), and Zehneria Endlicher (30 species) are from the Old World tropics.</p>
|tables=
|references=
}}<!--

--><!--

-->{{#Taxon:
name=Melothria
|author=
|authority=Linnaeus
|rank=genus
|parent rank=family
|synonyms=
|basionyms=
|family=Cucurbitaceae
|distribution=United States;Mexico;West Indies;Central America;South America;introduced in Asia.
|reference=None
|publication title=Sp. Pl.;Gen. Pl. ed.
|publication year=1753;1754
|special status=
|source xml=https://jpend@bitbucket.org/aafc-mbb/fna-data-curation.git/src/f6b125a955440c0872999024f038d74684f65921/coarse_grained_fna_xml/V6/V6_62.xml
|genus=Melothria
}}<!--

-->[[Category:Treatment]][[Category:Cucurbitaceae]]