Luffa Mill.
EOL Text
Prostrate creeper or scandent climber, bearing tendrils. Leaves broadly ovate in outline, palmately 5-7-lobed with deeply and irregularly serrate margins. Flowers large, deep yellow, unisexual on the same plant. Fruit smooth, ellipsoid to cylindric, up to 25 cm long, dry when mature and opening by a small apical lid.
Occasional
cylindrica: cylindric
Flowering and fruiting: February-December
"Notes: Forest margins and wastelands,Plains to Low Altitude, Cultivated"
The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.
Monoecious annual herbs, prostrate or climbing. Leaves simple. Tendrils 2-6-fid. Male flowers in a raceme. Petals 5, 2-4.5 cm, entire. Stamens 5. Female flowers solitary; ovary densely puberulous; stigma 3-lobed. Mature fruit dry, brownish, opening by an apical lid, fibrous internally. Seeds elliptic, flattened.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings, Flora of Zimbabwe |
| Source | http://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/genus.php?genus_id=1441 |
Flowering class: Dicot Habit: Climber
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 2
Specimens with Barcodes: 2
Species With Barcodes: 1
Distribution: Distributed in warmer countries of Asia and Africa; cultivated or subspontaneous; introduced in tropical America.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
| Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=200022696 |