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Gourd family
Cucurbitaceae
ウリ科
A family containing many globally important vegetables and fruits such as cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelons, and bitter gourds. Mostly climbing herbs that cling to supports with tendrils. Monoecious with unisexual flowers; fruits are a distinctive berry type called a pepo.
Key Characteristics
- ●Climbing herbs with axillary tendrils
- ●Leaves are alternate, often palmately lobed
- ●Flowers are unisexual (mostly monoecious), with fused petals 5-lobed
- ●Fruit is a pepo with a rind that tends to harden
Morphological Traits
A family may include species with different trait values — multiple values indicate the range within the family.
Leaf arrangement
Alternate
Leaf type
Simple / Compound
Venation
Palmate
Leaf margin
Entire
Growth form
Shrub / Herb
Evergreen/Deciduous
Deciduous
Compound type
Ternate / Palmate
Leaf dissection
Dissected / Undivided
Stipules
Absent
Flower symmetry
Actinomorphic
Petal count
6 petals
Ovary position
Inferior
Stamen count
3-4
Plant sex
Dioecious / Hermaphrodite / Monoecious
Phylogenetic Position
Angiosperms > Eudicots > Core eudicots > Cucurbitales > Cucurbitaceae
Divergence Era
Late Cretaceous to Paleogene (about 80–70 million years ago)
Representative Genera
Related Evolution Events
- ・Evolution of the pepo, a unique fruit type
- ・Development of cucurbitacins as bitter defense compounds against herbivores
Plants in Gourd family on this site
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