Cucurbita ficifolia

Bouché

Verh. Vereins. Beförd. Gartenbaues Königl. Preuss. Staaten 12: 205. 1837.

Common names: Fig leaf or Malabar gourd fig leaf or blackseed squash chilacayote shark fin melon cidra Asian pumpkin Thai marrow
Introduced
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 6. Treatment on page 57. Mentioned on page 49, 51, 58.

Plants annual or short-lived perennial; roots taproots. Stems prostrate or climbing, often rooting adventitiously at nodes, to 25 m, usually sparsely hirsute with puberulent understory of gland-tipped hairs, sometimes without hirsute overstory, without pustulate-based hairs; tendrils 3–4-branched 3–5 cm above base, glabrous, eglandular. Leaves: petiole 8–20 cm, sparsely hirsute to hispid-hirsute, without pustulate-based hairs; blade sometimes mottled with silvery green, suborbiculate to ovate or reniform, palmately 3–5-lobed, 11–16 × 15–26 cm, usually broader than long or equally so, base cordate, sometimes shallowly and irregularly toothed, lobes with sinuses shallow or ± 1/2 to petiole, obovate to ovate, depressed-ovate, or triangular, midveins of leaf lobes not distinctly elongate-whitened, margins closely mucronulate to denticulate, surfaces short-villous to pubescent, eglandular. Peduncles in fruit 5-ribbed, slightly or not expanded at point of fruit attachment, hardened, woody. Flowers: hypanthium campanulate, 5–10 mm; sepals linearlanceolate, not foliaceous, 5–15 mm; corolla yellow to yellow-orange, tubular-campanulate, 6–12 cm (staminate at shorter end of range); anther-filaments sparsely short-villous, hairs viscid-glandular; ovary densely pubescent. Pepos (1) light or dark green, with or without longitudinal white lines or stripes distally, (2) irregularly, often linearly mottled, green-and-white, or (3) whitish to cream, globose to broadly ovoid or ovoid-elliptic, (15–) 20–50 cm, smooth, flesh usually white, sweet. Seeds usually dark-brown to black, sometimes whitish, ovate to ovate-elliptic or oblongelliptic, 15–25 mm, margins raised-thickened and smooth, surfaces smooth. 2n = 40.


Phenology: Flowering Jul–Oct.
Habitat: Old habitations, open woods
Elevation: 100–1500 m

Distribution

V6 94-distribution-map.jpg

Introduced; Calif., South America, also in Mexico, Central America, Europe (England), Europe (Germany), Europe (Spain), Asia, Pacific Islands (Galapagos Islands), Pacific Islands (New Zealand)

Discussion

Cucurbita ficifolia is included here on the basis of two collections from California: one from Ventura County in 1968 from the site of an old habitation at about 50 m; the other from San Bernardino County in 1948 from a wooded area at about 1400 m.

The wild ancestor of Cucurbita ficifolia is not known, but it grows in cool, high-elevation ecological zones and is considered to have originated in South America (M. Nee 1990; O. I. Sanjur et al. 2002), whence the only reliable archaeological records.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.

No values specified.

... more about "Cucurbita ficifolia"
distinct +  and connate +
Guy L. Nesom +
Bouché +
toothed +  and cordate +
mottled with silvery green +
11 cm110 mm <br />0.11 m <br /> (16 cm160 mm <br />0.16 m <br />) +
3-5-lobed;suborbiculate;ovate or reniform +
tubular +, saucer--shaped +, campanulate +  and rotate +
Fig leaf or Malabar gourd +, fig leaf or blackseed squash +, chilacayote +, shark fin melon +, cidra +, Asian pumpkin +  and Thai marrow +
yellow +  and yellow-orange +
tubular-campanulate +
6 cm60 mm <br />0.06 m <br /> (12 cm120 mm <br />0.12 m <br />) +
Calif. +, South America +, also in Mexico +, Central America +, Europe (England) +, Europe (Germany) +, Europe (Spain) +, Asia +, Pacific Islands (Galapagos Islands) +  and Pacific Islands (New Zealand) +
100–1500 m +
furrowed +  and echinate +
dehiscent +  and indehiscent +
bristly +, smooth +, hairy +  and glabrous +
tuberculate +  and muricate +
fleshy +  and hard +
connate +  and distinct +
staminate +, from different axils than staminate +  and pistillate +
cultivated +
stipitate;peltate +
Old habitations, open woods +
pustulate-based +  and gland-tipped +
perennial +
dioecious +  and monoecious +
campanulate +
0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br /> (1 cm10 mm <br />0.01 m <br />) +
umbellate;subumbellate +
solitary +, corymbose +, fasciculate +, racemose +  and paniculate +
petiolate +, estipulate +  and simple +
obovate;ovate depressed-ovate or triangular +
closely mucronulate +  and denticulate +
raised-thickened +
not +  and differentiated +
elongate-whitened +
woody +  and hardened +
induplicate-valvate +  and imbricate +
9 cm90 mm <br />0.09 m <br /> (12 cm120 mm <br />0.12 m <br />) +
yellow;orange +
pubescent +  and puberulent +
broadly ovate;oblong-ovate oblongelliptic triangular triangular-ovate or lanceolate-ovate +
2.5 cm25 mm <br />0.025 m <br /> (9 cm90 mm <br />0.09 m <br />) +
sparsely hirsute;hispid-hirsute +
8 cm80 mm <br />0.08 m <br /> (20 cm200 mm <br />0.2 m <br />) +
Flowering Jul–Oct. +
Verh. Vereins. Beförd. Gartenbaues Königl. Preuss. Staaten +
arillate +  and winged +
whitish +, usually dark-brown +  and black +
ovate +  and ovate-elliptic or oblongelliptic +
1.5 cm15 mm <br />0.015 m <br /> (2.5 cm25 mm <br />0.025 m <br />) +
not foliaceous +
subulate-linear;lanceolate +
0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br /> (1.5 cm15 mm <br />0.015 m <br />) +
more or less +  and shallow +
Introduced +
climbing +  and prostrate +
sprawling +  and prostrate +
0 cm0 mm <br />0 m <br /> (2,500 cm25,000 mm <br />25 m <br />) +
short-villous +  and pubescent +
Cucurbita ficifolia +
Cucurbita +
species +
eglandular +  and 3-4-branched +
3 cm30 mm <br />0.03 m <br /> (5 cm50 mm <br />0.05 m <br />) +
perennial +, short-lived +  and annual +