Botanical Name - Cucumis melo L.


Group:

1 Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) - I - Dicotyledons

Family:

Cucurbitaceae

Genus:

Cucumis

Common sinhala name:

Kekiri

Habit:

Creeper

Origin:

Exotic ? - Food Crop

National conservation status:

N/A

Legal status:

N/A

Similar species:

All vernacular names:

Kekiri, (Gon kekiri , Maha Gon Kekiri, Thiththa Kekiri, Ibi Kekiri, Geta Kekiri, Heen Kekiri, Atu Kekiri - For wild varieties) (S), Melon (E), Metukku / Mulamparham (T)

Cucumis melo L.

Contributors for Images:

FlowerSL (ID-PMR), Sanjeewa Rupasinghe (ID-SR), Jecob de Vlas (ID-JdV) - IDA 100%

Annual or perennial occasionally from woody rootstock, monoecious. Stems climbing or procumbent, hispid, strigose or rarely lanate. Tendrils simple. Leaves: lamina 3-7.5(—12) x 7.5(—l3) cm, entire or 3—5-lobed or palmately lobed, lobes serrate to subentire, broadly ovate to orbicular reniform in outline, cordate, apex acute to obtuse, overall hispid or pilose above, only on veins beneath; petiole (l cm long, very coarsely hispid. Calyx c. 0.8 cm long overall, densely hispid-pilose, lobes 0.4—0.5 cm long, linear to narrowly triangular. Corolla c. 2.5—3 cm diameter, lobes 2 x 1 cm, broadly ovate elliptic, pilose without, especially on major veins Style 1.6—1.8 mm long, stigmas 2 mm long. Ovary ellipsoid, softly pubescent. Fruit smooth, softly pubescent when young, very varied in shape from globose, ellipsoid, ovoid or obovoid to cylindrical, up to c. 3—12 cm long, rarely more, monocoloured or variously longitudinally striped. Seeds 3.5-5 x 1 .5—2 x 1 mm, somewhat compressed ellipsoid minutely apically winged or not, cream coloured. (FOC)
Cucumis trigonus Roxb.


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