8622.000 Cucurbita L. - Squashes and gourds

Herbs, annual or perennial, stem angular, hispid or hairy; tendrils branched, mostly 2-4-fid. Leaves petiolate; lamina ovate, generally 5 lobed, base cordate, hirsute or scabrescent. Inflorescence solitary, shortly pedunculated; flowers large, yellow, lobes 5, subulate, spathulate or leafy, corolla campanulate, shallowly 5-lobed, lobes usually recurved. Fruit fleshy, indehiscent. Seeds many, ovate or oblong, smooth, marginate or emarginated.

Derivation of name: 20 species in tropical America.

Zimbabwe: 3 cultivated taxa.