Botanical Name / Trichosanthes cucumerina L.

Annual. dioecious. or rarely monoecious, slender, stems glabrous or occasionally slightly hairy. Leaves subcircular or more usually reniform in out line. deeply cordate: lamina 4.5—12 x 5—14.5 cm, thin, shallowly to deeply 5 lobed, lobes rounded or obtuse, rarely subacute, denticulate to dentate, sparsely long hirsute above to subglabrous, subglabrous to shortly pubescent beneath, occasionally with few longer hairs on main venation; petiole 2.5—4 cm long, densely, minutely pubescent, at times with longer, white hairs. Flowers white. Male flowers in racemes or single-pedunculate, often both types inserted on stem together; racemes 9—18 cm long, 4—6-flowered; calyx tube 2—3 cm long, dilated towards apex; lobes c. 2 mm long, narrowly lanceolate. acute, spreading; petals c. 1 cm long, lanceolate-oblong with tuft of crisped laciniae at apex. Female flowers single-pedunculate, where plant monoecious, frequently replacing single-pedunculate male flower in male in florescence. Fruit 4.5—7.5 x 1.5—2.5 cm, broadly ovoid-conical or ovoid- ellipsoid, tapering at each end, long beak, smooth, pale green when young with white to cream longitudinal stripes, ripening bright red; pericarp thin. Seeds up to 1.25 cm long, compressed, surrounded by red pulp. (FOC)

Trichosanthes cucumerina var. laciniosa Thw.

• https://www.osuturu.lk/2014/06/trichosanthes-cucumerina.html
• https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:294175-1/images