Description: Climbing or trailing annual or perennial herbs, usually bristly; monoecious or dioecious. Tendrils simple.
Leaves simple, lamina toothed or deeply palmately lobed.
Flowers mostly unisexual. Male flowers solitary or in few-flowered clusters; female flowers mostly solitary, sometimes co-axillary with males. Hypanthium bell-shaped. Corolla deeply 5-lobed, yellow. Stamens 3, two 2-locular, one 1-locular, loculi flexuous. Female flowers usually with 3 staminodes. Ovary globose, pubescent; ovules many, horizontal.
Fruit ellipsoid, fleshy, indehiscent, smooth and pubescent, often glabrescent with age or covered with spines or bristles; seeds many, elliptic, compressed.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 28 species, mostly tropical & southern Africa, also tropical Asia to Australia. Australia: c. 7 species (1 species possibly native), all States.
A number of species are widely cultivated, especially C. sativus L. (Cucumber) and C. melo L. (rockmelons, cantaloupes and honey dew melons) and to a lesser extent C. metulifera Naudin (Horned Cucumber) and C. anguria L. (West Indian Gherkin).
Text by G. J. Harden
Taxon concept:
Taxa not yet included in identification key
Cucumis althaeoides,
Cucumis metuliferus,
Cucumis picrocarpus
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves more or less unlobed, petiole c. twice as long as the lamina; fruit densely covered with soft bristles c. 6 mm long, bristles more or less completely obscuring the surface of the fruit | Cucumis dipsaceus |
| Leaves mostly deeply 3–5-lobed, petiole less than twice as long as the lamina; fruit either covered with scattered bristles or spines, or bristles dense but not obscuring the surface of the fruit, or spines and bristles absent | 2 |
| 2 | Fruit lacking spines or bristles, glabrous or pubescent; leaves shallowly to deeply lobed, rarely almost unlobed | Cucumis melo |
| Fruit covered with rigid spines or bristles; leaves deeply lobed
Back to 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Fruit globose, less than 30 mm diam., striped | Cucumis myriocarpus |
| Fruit ellipsoid, more than 30 mm diam.; mostly not striped
Back to 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Spines rigid, less than 4 mm long; stalk of fruit more than 30 mm long; leaves with central lobe more or less rounded | Cucumis anguria |
| Bristles soft, more than 4 mm long; stalk of fruit less than 20 mm long; leaves with central lobe usually acute
Back to 3 | Cucumis zeyheri |
|
