Citrullus

Citrullus
	Bitter melon ( Citrullus colocynthis ), illustration
Systematics
Order :	Pumpkin-like (Cucurbitales)
Family :	Pumpkin family (Cucurbitaceae)
Subfamily :	Cucurbitoideae
Tribe :	Benincaseae
Sub tribus :	Benincasinae
Genre :	Citrullus
Scientific name
	Citrullus
	Schrad. ex Eckl. & Zeyh.

Watermelon ( Citrullus lanatus var. Lanatus ), fruits

Citrullus (German citrulle ) is a small genus of plants from the cucurbit family (Cucurbitaceae). Its seven species have natural ranges in Africa and in tropical Asia. The best known is the watermelon ( Citrullus lanatus ). Molecular data, in particular DNA sequences of the type collection of Citrullus lanatus , discovered by Thunberg near Cape Town in 1773, show that this plant was a bitter melon and is not closely related to today's watermelon (Chomicki and Renner, 2014). The sister species of Citrullus lanatus is Citrullus mucosospermus (Fursa) Fursa from West Africa , while the sister species of Citrullus colocynthis is the South African Citrullus ecirrhosus Cogn. is.

description

The Citrullus species are creeping to climbing, annual or perennial herbaceous plants . The stems are hairy. Their alternate, stalked, simple leaves are three to five-lobed, deeply incised and often further subdivided. Stipules are missing. Simple or branched tendrils are formed.

Some species are single sexed ( monoecious ), others are dioecious ( dioecious ). The solitary, unisexual flowers are five-fold and radially symmetrical . The five sepals are fused bell-shaped. The five yellow petals are fused to about the middle. The male flowers contain three free stamens . The female flowers contain three staminodes and a hairy, lower ovary with a stylus and a three-lobed stigma.

The fruit, which is often almost spherical, is a berry . It contains many large, flat, smooth, white or dark seeds that were previously used as ( humoral pathologically "cold") remedies.

Systematics

In the genus Citrullus (from Italian citrullo : "small lemon cucumber ") there are seven species:

Colocinth ( Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad. ): This perennial species is cultivated in many countries and is also wild.
Citrullus ecirrhosus Cogn. : Home is the Capensis .
Watermelon ( Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai ) with wild forms in southern Africa and z. T. cultivated in southern France.
Citrullus rehmii De Winter : Home is Namibia .
Citrullus naudinianus (Sond.) Hook.f. : It occurs in southern Africa.
Citrullus mucosospermus (Fursa) Fursa : It occurs in Ghana and Benin .
Citrullus amarus Schrad. : It is native to southern Africa.

The common name tsamma melon is used for both Citrullus ecirrhosus and Citrullus amarus .

literature

SS Renner, G. Chomicki, W. Greuter: Proposal to conserve the name Momordica lanata (Citrullus lanatus) (watermelon, Cucurbitaceae), with a conserved type, against Citrullus battich . In: Taxon . Volume 63, number 4, 2014, pp. 941-942 ( doi: 10.12705 / 634.29 ).
G. Chomicki, SS Renner: Watermelon origin solved with molecular phylogenetics including Linnaean material: Another example of museomics . In New Phytologist . Volume 205, number 2, 2014, pp. 526-532 ( doi: 10.1111 / nph.13163 ).
Renner, SS, A. Sousa, and G. Chomicki: Chromosome numbers, Sudanese wild forms, and classification of the watermelon genus Citrullus, with 50 names allocated to seven biological species . In taxon . Volume 66, Number 6, 2017, pp. 1393-1405. ( doi: 10.12705 / 666.7 ).

Web links

Commons : Citrullus - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Wouter S. van den Berg (ed.): Eene Middelnederlandsche vertaling van het Antidotarium Nicolaï (Ms. 15624–15641, Kon. Bibl. Te Brussel) with the Latijnschen tekst der first printed uitgave van het Antidotarium Nicolaï. Brill, Leiden 1917, p. 207, archive.org .
↑ Helmut Genaust: Etymological dictionary of botanical plant names. Birkhäuser, Basel / Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 978-3-0348-7651-3 , p. 114.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Citrullus in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Retrieved January 17, 2017.

[1] Wouter S. van den Berg (ed.): Eene Middelnederlandsche vertaling van het Antidotarium Nicolaï (Ms. 15624–15641, Kon. Bibl. Te Brussel) with the Latijnschen tekst der first printed uitgave van het Antidotarium Nicolaï. Brill, Leiden 1917, p. 207, archive.org .

[2] Helmut Genaust: Etymological dictionary of botanical plant names. Birkhäuser, Basel / Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 978-3-0348-7651-3 , p. 114.

[GRIN-3] Citrullus in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Retrieved January 17, 2017.