Luffa aegyptiaca
Diagnostic description 6
Luffa aegyptiaca Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8. 1768.
Synonym: Luffa cilindrica M. Roem.
Herbaceous vine, monoecious, climbing by axillary tendrils, attaining 10 m in length. Stems green, slender, subcylindrical or angular, ribbed, glabrous or puberulous; tendrils trifid. Leaves alternate; blades 11-25 (35) × 7-25 (32) cm, 3-7-palmatilobed, chartaceous, the lobes lanceolate or ovate, the apices acute or acuminate, the base cordiform, the margins entire or serrate; upper surface scabrid; lower surface pale green, scabrid; petioles as long as or longer than the blade. Flowers unisexual, actinomorphic. Calyx green, campanulate, the lobes 12-15 mm long, lanceolate; corolla pale yellow, 2.5-4.5 cm long, the lobes ovate, obtuse. Staminate flowers in racemes 12-15 cm long; stamens 5, not exserted, the filaments free, 3-4 m long, villous. Pistillate flowers solitary, with a hypanthium ca. 3 cm long; ovary inferior, tricarpellate, ellipsoid, with numerous horizontal ovules, the style short, the stigmas globose. Fruit trigonal, slightly sulcate, 20-45 cm long, the pericarp crustose, dehiscent by apical pores, the mesocarp forming a network of fibers; seeds numerous, elliptical, 10-13 mm long, black, smooth.
Phenology: Flowering from November to January and fruiting in January and from July to August.
Status: Exotic, cultivated and naturalized, uncommon.
Selected Specimens Examined: Acevedo-Rdgz., P. 4066; 7231; Goll, G.P. 829; Heller, A.A. 370; Sintenis, P. 716; 3174; Stevenson, J.A. 342.
Distribution 7
Distribution: Native to the paleotropics, cultivated, escaped, or naturalized, in disturbed areas along roads and moist forest margins in central Puerto Rico. Also on St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas. Cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics.
Sources and Credits
- (c) Valter Jacinto, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6219/6419912809_1edb4bf77b_o.jpg
- (c) Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten and Petra Ballings, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/images/15/157240-3.jpg
- (c) Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten and Petra Ballings, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/images/15/157240-4.jpg
- (c) Marco Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.westafricanplants.senckenberg.de/root/index.php?page_id=14&id=1046
- (c) Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/services/media.php?env=botany&irn=10355735
- (c) Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/28435298
- (c) Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/28435805
