Description: Robust monoecious perennial climbers. Tendrils 2–5-branched.
Leaves ± entire to shallowly lobed, sparsely pubescent. Male flowers in racemes, female flowers solitary next to male inflorescence. Corolla 5-lobed, pubescent. Stamens 3, filaments fused into a column. Female flowers without staminodes. Ovary with a single ovule.
Fruit obovoid, green, with scattered soft spines when young but spines mostly absent at maturity, 1-seeded; seed compressed, germinating within the fruit.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 1 species, tropical America. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by G. J. Harden
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Sechium edule |
|
