17. Trichosanthes Linn., Sp. Pl. 1008. 1753. Gen. Pl. ed. 5. 439. 1754; Benth. & Hook. f., Gen. Pl. 1:821. 1867; Clarke in Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 2:606. 1879; Cogn. in A. & C. DC., Monogr. Phan. 3.351. 1881; Chakravarty, Monogr. Ind. Cucurbit. in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. 17(1): 28. 1959; Hutch., Gen. Fl. P12: 407. 1967.
S. NAZIMUDDIN AND S. SHAHARYAR H. NAQVI
Annual or perennial climbing herbs, dioecious or monoecious; tendrils 2-3-fid or unbranched. Leaves entire or denticulate, palmately 3-5 (-9)-lobed, cordate at base. Flowers white; male racemose, rarely solitary, often bracteate; female solitary. Clayx-tube oblong-cylindrical, expanded above, 5-lobed, lobes lanceolate, entire or serrate. Corolla deeply 5-lobed, rotate, lobes oblong or lanceolate, fimbriate. Stamens 3, inserted on the calyx tube, filaments short, anthers syngenesious, rarely free; staminodes absent. Style slender, stigmas 3, pistillodes 3, filiform. Ovary oblong-ovoid, fusiform, globose, ovules many, horizontal, or semipendulous. Fruit oblong, ovoid-globose or fusiform, large, indehiscent, usually glabrous and smooth, many seeded. Seeds ellipsoid or oblong, packed in pulp.
A genus of c. 40 species, distributed from Pakistan extending eastward to Indo-Malaysia, and Australia.
