Coccinia Wight & Arn., Prodr. fl. Ind. orient.: 347. 1834.

Holstein, Norbert, 2015, Monograph of Coccinia (Cucurbitaceae), PhytoKeys 54, pp. 1-166 : 51

Coccinia Wight & Arn., Prodr. fl. Ind. orient.: 347. 1834.

Cephalandra Schrad. ex Eckl. & Zeyh., Enum. pl. afric. austral. 2: 280. 1836. Type species: Bryonia quinqueloba Thunb.

Physedra Benth. & Hook.f., Gen pl. 1(3): 827. 1867. Indirectly lectotypified by Jeffrey (1962: 361) Type species: Physedra heterophylla Hook.f.

Staphylosyce Benth. & Hook.f., Gen pl. 1(3): 828. 1867. Type species: Staphylosyce barteri Hook.f.

Type species.

see Bryonia grandis L.

Description.

Dioecious. Perennial climbers or creepers. Stems up to 20 m, glabrous or covered with simple smutty-white to yellowish trichomes. Leaves alternate, simple, paired with a tendril. Leaves sessile ( Coccinia sessilifolia var. sessilifolia ), subsessile to distinctly petiolate. Petioles up to 16.5 cm. Petioles glabrous or covered with simple trichomes. Leaves 0.7-20 × 1.1-23 cm, reniform, cordate to deeply palmately 3- to 7-lobate, sometimes lobulate. Lobes triangulate, ovate, elliptical to linear. Margin entire to more or less densely serrate, dentate. Teeth inconspicuous or colored. Leaf apex obtuse, acute to acuminate. Upper leaf surface with clear or whitish pustules, sometimes with trichomes emerging from the lamina or from pustules. Nerves glabrous or with simple trichomes. Lower leaf surface paler than upper surface, glabrous or with simple trichomes. Probracts caducous or persistent, ovate, up to 4.5 mm long. Lower surface keeled or bulging outwards, often with extranuptial glands. Tendrils simple or unequally bifid. Flowers and inflorescences emerging from leaf axils. Male flowers solitary, fascicled or in up to 20-flowered racemes. If solitary flowers and racemes are developed, then solitary flowers occurring before the racemes (within the plant and per node). Common peduncle of raceme 0.5-10 cm, pedicel of flowers in racemes 0.3-1.8 cm, glabrous or with indumentum as on stem but often less dense. Bracts ovate, up to 4 mm long or missing. Pedicel of solitary flowers 0.2-8.5 cm, glabrous or with simple trichomes. Perianth tube glabrous or more or less densely covered with trichomes. Calyx connate, campanulate, rarely cupulate or urceolate, glabrous, puberulous or with long, simple trichomes. Calyx lobes 0.5-15 mm, triangulate, lineal or subulate; reflexed, spreading to erect. Corolla connate, campanulate, urn-shaped or tubular, 0.7-6.2 cm long; white, dull yellow to orange, salmon; lobes 0.3-4.7 cm, inside densely covered with multicellular trichomes, of which some end with a glandular endcell. Filament column (greenish-)white or orange, anther head pale yellowish green to orange, pollen sacs S-shaped. Female flowers solitary, in pairs or in racemes. Common peduncle 0.3-2.1 cm, glabrous or puberulous. Pedicel of flowers in racemes 0.3-1 cm, glabrous or with simple trichomes, pedicels of solitary flowers 0.7-5 cm, glabrous or puberulous. Calyx and corolla as in males but with hypogynous ovary. Calyx in few cases urn-shaped. Style columnar, greenish yellow, yellow, or orange. Stigmas bulging or 2-lobed, greenish yellow, yellow, or orange. Staminodes 3, attached to the perianth, white (also yellowish or orange?), anthers reduced. Ovary glabrous or with simple, short to long trichomes that then appear articulate when dry. Fruits 1.8-30 × 1.4-5 cm, globose, ovoid, elliptical, or cylindrical; glabrous or with sparse trichomes. Unripe fruits glaucous green to green, sometimes with white, white-and-green or rarely green longitudinal mottling. Ripe fruits orange-red to scarlet red; unicolored or rarely with white to yellowish longitudinal mottling. Seeds enclosed in a hyaline hull, 4.5-7 × 2-3.5 × 1-1.5 mm (L/W/H), symmetrically or asymmetrically obovate, apex round, base narrowed, obtuse, round or square-edged. Face flat to lenticular. Seed surface, depending on the extraction mode, rugulose or filamentose.