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Plantae
Tracheophyta
Magnoliopsida
Cucurbitales
Cucurbitaceae
Citrullus
Sibling

Citrullus lanatus

(Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai Bitter Melon

Cat. Semin. Spor. Hort. Bot. Univ. Imp. Tokyo 30: no. 854 (1916)

APNI

Taxonomic status Accepted

Occurrence status Present

Establishment means Introduced

Degree of establishment Established

Annual, trailing herb with hairy stems. Leaf-lamina 2.5–7 cm long, 2.5–8 cm wide, palmately 3–5-lobed, the lobes ovate, sinuate-dentate to pinnately 3–7-lobed, glabrescent to sparsely scabrous above, coarsely scabrous-hairy below, margins flat; petiole 1–6.5 cm long, hairy; tendrils 2–4-branched. Male flowers on pedicels 1–8 cm long; petals 0.5–1.5 cm long, yellow. Female flowers on pedicels 0.5–1.5 cm long; petals 0.5-lcm long, yellow. Fruit 1.5–10 cm diam., globose, green with cream mottling or irregular stripes; pedicel 2–4 cm long; seeds 9–12 mm long, brown, smooth with rough darker markings. Flowers Mar.–May.

LoM, MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, GipP, OtP, Gold, NIS. Naturalized all mainland States. Native of tropical and southern Africa, tropical Asia. Occurs in disturbed sites such as railway sidings, saleyards and on roadsides.

Chomicki & Renner (2015) maintain that the correct name for Camel Melon is Citrullus amara Schrad., but Shaik et al. (2016) suggest this assertion is premature.

Watermelons are a cultivated variant of C. lanatus.

Source:

Jobson, P.C. (1996). Cucurbitaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., ‍Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae‍, pp. 379–385. Inkata Press, Melbourne.

Updated by: Neville Walsh, 16 Feb. 2018

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Higher taxa

species

Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai

Subordinate taxa

Chomicki, G.; Renner, S.S. (2015). Watermelon origin solved with molecular phylogenetics including Linnaean material: another example of museomics.. New Phytologist 205: 526–532.

Shaik, R.S.; Lepschi, B.J.; Gopurenko, D.; Urwin, N.A.R.; Burrows, G.E.; Weston, L.A. (2016). An integrative morphological and molecular approach to identification of three Australian cucurbitaceous invasive weeds: Citrullus colocynthis, C. lanatus and Cucumis myriocarpus. Australian Systematic Botany **29 **(5): 247–264.

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