Group:
1 Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) - I - Dicotyledons
Family:
Cucurbitaceae
Genus:
Citrullus
Common sinhala name:
Yak-komadu
Habit:
Creeper
Origin:
Native
National conservation status:
VU- Vulnerable
Legal status:
Not protected
Similar species:
All vernacular names:
Yak-komadu, Thiththa labu (S), Coloeynth / Bitter cucumber (E), Peykkomaddi / Peykkomakki (T)
Perennial, trailing. Stems slender, angular, scabrid or at times long villous, often woody at base; tendrils simple or occasionally 2-fid. Leaves long petiolate; lamina 3—10 x 2.5—7 cm, generally narrowly or broadly triangular in outline, but very varied, very deeply, palmately 3—5-lobed with middle lobe longest, all lobes deeply pinnatifid, with segments further lobed or dentate, subglabrous above, densely scabrid beneath with swollen-based, prickly bristles, margins usually inrolled when dry. Petiole 1.5—3.5 cm long, densely bristly-scabrid or long-hairy. Flowers pale- to greenish-yellow; peduncle c. 2.5 cm long, stout, densely long-hairy; calyx-tube to c. 2.5 mm long, lobes c. 5 mm long, linear-oblong; corolla c. 6—7 mm long, lobes obovate. hairy. connate at base; ovary oblong-ovoid, hairy; style short. Fruit 3.5 x 4 cm (or considerably larger, ex litt.), slightly depressed-globular, fleshy, drying pale brown, smooth. Seeds 6 x 3.5 mm, ovoid, longitudinally compressed. pale brown. (FOC)