Group:
1 Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) - I - Dicotyledons
Family:
Cucurbitaceae
Genus:
Coccinia
Common sinhala name:
Kowakka
Habit:
Creeper - perennial climber
Origin:
Native
National conservation status:
LC- Least Concern
Legal status:
Not protected
Similar species:
All vernacular names:
Ivy gourd (E), Kovvai (T)
Contributors for Images:
FlowerSL (ID-PMR), Pathumi Dinithya (ID-PMR), Jecob de Vlas (ID-JdV)- IDA 100%
Plant perennial. dioecious. Stems slender, herbaceous, angled, glabrous, becoming woody with papery bark; tendrils simple. Leaves petiolate; lamina 3—10.5 x 3—10 cm, very varied in shape or outline but generally broadly ovate-cordate basal sinus wide, shallowly to deeply palmately 3—5-lobed, lobes acute or more frequently obtuse, rounded, subentire to sinuate-dentate or occasionally with secondary marginal lobing, terminal lobe markedly mucronate. densely scabrid above, less so beneath, or subglabrous on both surfaces. Petiole (0.5—)1—2.5(—3.5) cm long. Flowers solitary or more rarely in pairs. white. short-to-long pedunculate; calyx tube campanulate, limb 5-lobed, lobes c. 3 x 0.75 mm long, linear-oblong, glabrous, spreading or subreflexed; corolla up to 3 cm long, campanulate, shortly crisped hairy without, villous within, 5-lobed to about midway, lobes long, lanceolate. Male peduncle up to 6 cm long, glabrous, jointed just below flower. Female peduncle c. 6 mm long in flower, extending to c. 2 cm long in fruit. Fruit to 8 cm long, oblong- ovoid, fleshy, scarlet. Seeds numerous, 7 x 3 mm, narrowly subreniform or oblong-ovoid, compressed, densely fawn-tomentose. (FOC)
Cephalandra indica Naud.