Cucurbitaceae

Cucurbitaceae
Hodgsonia male plant
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Cucurbitales
Family:	Cucurbitaceae Juss.[1]
Type genus
Cucurbita L.
Tribes and genera
See text.

The Cucurbitaceae, also called cucurbits and the gourd family, are a plant family consisting of about 965 species in around 95 genera,^[2] the most important of which are:

• Cucurbita – squash, pumpkin, zucchini, some gourds
• Lagenaria – calabash, and others that are inedible
• Citrullus – watermelon (C. lanatus, C. colocynthis) and others
• Cucumis – cucumber (C. sativus), various melons
• Luffa – the common name is also luffa, sometimes spelled loofah (when fully ripened, two species of this fibrous fruit are the source of the loofah scrubbing sponge)

The plants in this family are grown around the tropics and in temperate areas, where those with edible fruits were among the earliest cultivated plants both in the Old and New Worlds. The Cucurbitaceae family ranks among the highest of plant families for number and percentage of species used as human food.^[3]

The Cucurbitaceae consist of 98 proposed genera with 975 species,^[4] mainly in regions tropical and subtropical. All species are sensitive to frost. Most of the plants in this family are annual vines, but some are woody lianas, thorny shrubs, or trees (Dendrosicyos). Many species have large, yellow or white flowers. The stems are hairy and pentangular. Tendrils are present at 90° to the leaf petioles at nodes. Leaves are exstipulate alternate simple palmately lobed or palmately compound. The flowers are unisexual, with male and female flowers on different plants (dioecious) or on the same plant (monoecious). The female flowers have inferior ovaries. The fruit is often a kind of modified berry called a pepo.

Fossil history

One of the oldest fossil records so far is Cucurbitaciphyllum lobatum from the Paleocene epoch, found at Shirley Canal, Montana. It was described for the first time in 1924 by Knowlton. The fossil leaf is palmate, trilobed with rounded lobal sinuses and an entire or serrate margin. It has a leaf pattern similar to the members of the genera Kedrostis, Melothria and Zehneria.^[5]

Classification

Tribal Classification

Pumpkins and squashes displayed in a show competition

A selection of cucurbits of the South Korean Genebank in Suwon

Cucurbits on display at the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid, with the title "Variedades de calabaza"

The most recent classification of Cucurbitaceae delineates 15 tribes:^[6][7]

Alphabetical List of Genera

Systematics

Modern molecular phylogenetics suggest the following relationships:^{[6][8][9][10][11][12]}

Images of cucurbits in Byzantine mosaics from Israel

Round melons and elongated adzhur melons in Kursi church mosaic, Israel, near the Sea of Galilee

Six cucurbit crops are represented in 23 Byzantine-era mosaics from Israel, these being round melons (Cucumis melo), watermelons (Citrullus lanatus), sponge gourds (Luffa aegyptiaca), snake melons (faqqous, Cucumis melo flexuosus group), adzhur melons (C. melo adzhur group), and bottle gourds (Lagenaria siceraria). Cucurbits are represented in 23 of the 134 mosaics containing images of crop plants, a surprisingly high frequency of 17%. Several of the cucurbit images have not been found elsewhere, suggesting a diverse and highly developed local horticulture of cucurbits in Israel during the Byzantine era. Representations of mature sponge gourds are found in widespread localities, suggestive of the high value accorded to cleanliness and hygiene.

Etymology and pronunciation

The name "Cucurbitaceae" (English: /kjuːˌkɜːrbᵻˈteɪsi, -siˌaɪ, -siˌeɪ, -siˌi/) comes to international scientific vocabulary from New Latin, from Cucurbita, the type genus, + -aceae,^[13] a standardized suffix for plant family names in modern taxonomy. The genus name comes from the Classical Latin word cucurbita, "gourd".

References

Additional Reading

• Bates D, Robinson R, Jeffrey C, ed. (1990). Biology and Utilization of the Cucurbitaceae. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-1670-1. CS1 maint: Multiple names: editors list (link)
• Jeffrey C. (2005). "A new system of Cucurbitaceae". Bot. Zhurn. 90: 332–335. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cucurbitaceae.

Wikispecies has information related to: Cucurbitaceae

• Cucurbitaceae in T.C. Andres (1995 onwards).
• Cucurbitaceae in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. https://web.archive.org/web/20070103200438/http://delta-intkey.com:80/
• Anat Avital and Harry S. Paris, 2014, 'Cucurbits depicted in Byzantine mosaics from Israel, 350–600 CE', Annals of Botany 114: pp. 203-22.