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  1. Family: Cucurbitaceae Juss.

    1. Luffa Mill.

        2. This genus is accepted, and is native to Asia-Tropical, Africa, Southern America, Australasia, Northern America and Gulf States..

    [FZ]

    Cucurbitaceae, C. Jeffrey. Flora Zambesiaca 4. 1978

    Habit
    Annual prostrate or scandent herbs.
    Leaves
    Leaves simple, petiolate.
    Tendrils
    Tendrils proximally 2–6-fid.
    Receptacle
    Receptacle-tube broadly campanulate; lobes large, enclosing the petals in bud, entire.
    Corolla
    Petals 5, free, entire.
    Stamens
    Stamens 5, all one-thecous, or 3, 2 two-thecous & 1 one-thecous; filaments inserted on the receptacle-tube, free; anthers free; connectives broad; thecae much convoluted.
    Flowers
    Female flowers solitary; ovary smooth, ribbed, tuberculate or spiny; ovules many, horizontal; stigma 3-lobed. Male flowers racemose. Flowers yellow or whitish, monoecious.
    Fruits
    Fruit globose to cylindrical, rostrate, smooth, ribbed or spiny, dry, brownish, fibrous, dehiscent by an apical operculum.
    Seeds
    Seeds compressed, oblong-elliptic in outline.
    [FTEA]

    Cucurbitaceae, C. Jeffrey. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1967

    Habit
    Climbing or trailing herbs
    Leaves
    Leaves simple; blade palmately lobed
    Tendrils
    Tendrils proximally 3–6-fid, less often bifid
    Flowers
    Flowers medium to large yellow, monoecious Male flowers racemose; receptacle-tube shortly campanulate; lobes relatively large, enclosing petals in bud, entire; petals 5, free, entire; stamens 5, all 1-thecous, in 2 pairs with one single, or the paired stamens variously united, when completely so stamens appearing as 3, 2 double 2-thecous, 1 single 1-thecous; filaments inserted on the tube, free; anthers free; connective broad; thecae marginal, much convoluted Female flowers solitary; ovary smooth, ribbed, tuberculate or spiny; ovules many, horizontal; receptacle-tube short; stigmas 3, bilobed
    Male
    Male flowers racemose; receptacle-tube shortly campanulate; lobes relatively large, enclosing petals in bud, entire; petals 5, free, entire; stamens 5, all 1-thecous, in 2 pairs with one single, or the paired stamens variously united, when completely so stamens appearing as 3, 2 double 2-thecous, 1 single 1-thecous; filaments inserted on the tube, free; anthers free; connective broad; thecae marginal, much convoluted
    Female
    Female flowers solitary; ovary smooth, ribbed, tuberculate or spiny; ovules many, horizontal; receptacle-tube short; stigmas 3, bilobed
    Fruits
    Fruit medium-sized to large, subglobose to elongate-cylindrical, beaked, smooth, ribbed or sparsely to densely spiny with short to rather long spines, brownish, dry and fibrous, dehiscent by an apical operculum
    Seeds
    Seeds medium-sized, distinctly compressed, oblong-elliptic in outline
    Figures
    Fig. 10.

    Images

    Distribution

    Native to:

    Assam, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Cameroon, Chad, Colombia, Costa Rica, East Himalaya, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, French Guiana, Galápagos, Guatemala, Gulf States, Guyana, India, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Territory, Pakistan, Panamá, Peru, Somalia, Sudan, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, West Himalaya, Western Australia

    Introduced into:

    Albania, Andaman Is., Angola, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Benin, Brazil South, Burkina, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Repu, Chagos Archipelago, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Congo, Cook Is., Cuba, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Fiji, Florida, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gulf of Guinea Is., Hainan, Haiti, Illinois, Inner Mongolia, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea, Leeward Is., Lesser Sunda Is., Liberia, Louisiana, Malawi, Maldives, Manchuria, Marianas, Mauritius, Mexico Central, Mozambique, Nauru, New Caledonia, Nicobar Is., North Carolina, Oman, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Qinghai, Rwanda, Réunion, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Is., South Carolina, Southwest Caribbean, Tanzania, Texas, Tibet, Tonga, Uganda, Vanuatu, Venezuelan Antilles, Virginia, Wallis-Futuna Is., Windward Is., Xinjiang, Yemen, Zambia, Zaïre, Zimbabwe

    Luffa Mill. appears in other Kew resources:

    Date Reference Identified As Barcode Type Status
    s.coll. [Cat. no. s.n.] K001132351

    First published in Gard. Dict. Abr. ed. 4: s.p. (1754)

    Literature

    Flora of West Tropical Africa
    • —F.T.A. 2: 530.
    Flora Zambesiaca
    • Gard. Diet, abridg. ed. 4 (1754).
    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • Gard. Dict., Abridg. ed. 4 [without pagination] (1754)

    Sources

    Flora Zambesiaca
    Flora Zambesiaca
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

    Herbarium Catalogue Specimens
    'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

    Kew Backbone Distributions
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2018. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

    Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2018. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0