Coccinia | |
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Coccinia grandis | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Cucurbitales |
Family: | Cucurbitaceae |
Subfamily: | Cucurbitoideae |
Tribe: | Benincaseae |
Genus: | Coccinia Wight & Arn. |
Species | |
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Synonyms | |
The scarlet gourds are a genus (Coccinia from the Greek, kokkinia or kokkinias - "red" or "scarlet") with 25 species. It is distributed in sub-Saharan Africa and with one species, C. grandis also in South Asia and Southeast Asia, and it is also introduced into the New World. Incidentally, C. grandis is also a cultivated crop and it is used for culinary and medical purposes.
Coccinia species are perennial climbing or creeping herbs. Climbing is supported by simple of unequally bifid tendrils. Most species develop a tuber from the hypocotyl, sometimes on roots. The cotyledons are simple, entire and have an blunt tip. The leaves are usually stalked, rarely sessile. The leaves are simple to deeply lobed, usually with teeth along the margin. The lower leaf side often bears small nectar-producing glands.
Coccinia species are dioecious, meaning that individual plants produce flowers with only male or only female organs. The sepals are connected and have five triangulate to lineal lobes. The corolla is also connected at the base and has five free lobes. The color of the corolla is creamy white to yellowish orange, rarely also snow-white or pinkish. The male flowers are solitary, in fascicles or often in racemes, female flowers are usually solitary, sometimes also in racemes. Male flowers have three stamens that are connected to a single filament column. The anthers form a globose head. The pollen is produced in S-shaped thecae. Female flowers have an inferior ovary consisting of three carpels and producing a single style. Each carpel ends in a bulging or 2-lobed stigma. Whereas male flowers lack any sign of female organs, female flowers contain three sterile stamens (staminodes). The fruit is a berry with red flesh and a red skin that rarely exhibits a white longitudinal mottling. The seeds are enclosed in a juicy hull (aril), grayish-beige, flat to lentil-shaped.
All species occur in sub-Saharan Africa, from semi-arid savannas to rain forests, rarely also mountain forests. The species adapted to these different habitats one to several times independently. [1] One species, C. grandis also occurs in tropical Asia, but is also spreading to Australia, several Pacific Islands and the tropical Americas. Sometimes it behaves invasive, e.g. in Hawaii, where it is regarded as obnoxious weed.
The genus Coccinia is best known for C. grandis, commonly known as "ivy gourd". Its fruits can be eaten raw when ripe or cooked when unripe. In the latter case, it is used in curries. Young leaves and shoots are also edible. All used plants are a good source of carotenoids. The tuber of Coccinia abyssinica is cooked and a source of starch for the Oromo people in Ethiopia. Local culinary uses also exist. However, many species and also populations within species can be bitter due to cucurbitacins.
Coccinia grandis is also well known in ayurvedic medicine for diabetes treatment, and modern research seems to confirm that it might be of value in that application.[ citation needed ]
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Rambutan is a medium-sized tropical tree in the family Sapindaceae. The name also refers to the edible fruit produced by this tree. The rambutan is native to Southeast Asia. It is closely related to several other edible tropical fruits, including the lychee, longan, pulasan, and quenepa.
In botany, a capsule is a type of simple, dry, though rarely fleshy dehiscent fruit produced by many species of angiosperms.
Syconium is the type of fruit borne by figs, formed by an enlarged, fleshy, hollow receptacle with multiple ovaries on the inside surface. In essence, it is really a fleshy stem with a number of flowers, so it is considered both a multiple and accessory fruit.
Coccinia grandis, the ivy gourd, also known as scarlet gourd, is a tropical vine. It grows primarily in tropical climates and is commonly found in the Indian states where it forms a part of the local cuisine. Coccinia grandis is cooked as a vegetable dish.
Dehiscence is the splitting of a mature plant structure along a built-in line of weakness to release its contents. This is common among fruits, anthers and sporangia. Sometimes this involves the complete detachment of a part. Structures that open in this way are said to be dehiscent. Structures that do not open in this way are called indehiscent, and rely on other mechanisms such as decay or predation to release the contents.
Gynoecium is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of pistils and is typically surrounded by the pollen-producing reproductive organs, the stamens, collectively called the androecium. The gynoecium is often referred to as the "female" portion of the flower, although rather than directly producing female gametes, the gynoecium produces megaspores, each of which develops into a female gametophyte which then produces egg cells.
In the flowering plants, an ovary is a part of the female reproductive organ of the flower or gynoecium. Specifically, it is the part of the pistil which holds the ovule(s) and is located above or below or at the point of connection with the base of the petals and sepals. The pistil may be made up of one carpel or of several fused carpels, and therefore the ovary can contain part of one carpel or parts of several fused carpels. Above the ovary is the style and the stigma, which is where the pollen lands and germinates to grow down through the style to the ovary, and, for each individual pollen grain, to fertilize one individual ovule. Some wind pollinated flowers have much reduced and modified ovaries.
In botany, a berry is a fleshy fruit without a stone (pit) produced from a single flower containing one ovary. Berries so defined include grapes, currants, and tomatoes, as well as cucumbers, eggplants (aubergines), persimmons and bananas, but exclude certain fruits that meet the culinary definition of berries, such as strawberries and raspberries. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire outer layer of the ovary wall ripens into a potentially edible "pericarp". Berries may be formed from one or more carpels from the same flower. The seeds are usually embedded in the fleshy interior of the ovary, but there are some non-fleshy exceptions, such as Capsicum species, with air rather than pulp around their seeds.
Gac, from the Vietnamese gấc, scientific name Momordica cochinchinensis, is a species of plant in the melon and cucumber family Cucurbitaceae which is native to countries throughout Southeast Asia and to Queensland, Australia. It is notable for its vivid orange-reddish color resulting from a mix of beta-carotene and lycopene.
This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary of leaf morphology. For other related terms, see Glossary of phytopathology, Glossary of lichen terms, and List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names.
Annona senegalensis, commonly known as African custard-apple, wild custard apple, wild soursop, abo ibobo, sunkungo, and dorgot is a species of flowering plant in the custard apple family, Annonaceae. The specific epithet, senegalensis, translates to mean "of Senegal", the country where the type specimen was collected.
Coccinia intermedia is a species of Coccinia which was first described in 2011 by Norbert Holstein.
Coccinia grandiflora is an East African species of Coccinia which was first described in 1895 by Alfred Cogniaux.
Coccinia sessilifolia is a species of Coccinia from southern Africa.
Coccinia pwaniensis is an East African species of Coccinia that was first described in 2010.
Coccinia abyssinica is an Ethiopian species of Coccinia which was first described by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. The tuber is under its Oromo name anchote a well-known local crop, but also the leaves are eaten.
Larsenianthus is a genus of monocotyledonous plants in the ginger family (Zingiberaceae). The genus was established in 2010. The four or so species are native to the area of the eastern Himalayas.
In botany, floral morphology is the study of the diversity of forms and structures presented by the flower, which, by definition, is a branch of limited growth that bears the modified leaves responsible for reproduction and protection of the gametes, called floral pieces.
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