Cucumis costatus I.Telford

Telford, I.R.H., Sebastian, P., Bruhl, J.J. & Renner, S.S. (2011) Systematic Botany 36(2): 381. Type: Australia. Queensland: Cook District: Mt Scatterbrain, Butchers Hill Station, near Lakeland, 15 deg 52 min S 144 deg 53 min E, 25 Jan. 1992, Forster 9514.

A slender trailing or climbing herb to 70 cm long; annually sprouting from perennial rootstock; stems ribbed and ca. 1 mm diameter. Tendrils simple, unbranched.

Leaf blades triangular to ovate, about 1.5-3.5 x 1.8-2.8 cm, petioles about 0.8-3.3 cm long. Upper and lower leaf blade surfaces clothed in hairs with glandular bases.

Inflorescences unisexual, +/- leaf-opposed rather than truly axillary. Male flowers: borne in racemes of 4-11 flowers; peduncles 3-30 mm long; pedicels about 3-15 mm long; calyx lobes narrow triangular, 0.6-2 mm long; corolla lobes ovate, 2.8-8 mm long; stamens 3, two stamens with 2-locular anthers and one stamen with a unilocular anther; anther locules straight. Female flowers: solitary; peduncles 10-14 mm long, elongating in fruit; staminodes absent; ovary 6-9.5 mm long, densely clothed in downward-pointing hairs.

Fruits about 16-32 x 10-12 mm, 9-10 longitudinal ribs, surface sparsely hispid; fruiting peduncle to 40 mm long; seeds 15-30, about 3-4 x 2.6-3 mm, testa surface pitted; cotyledons about 2 x 1.5 mm; radicle about 0.5-0.7 mm long; inner testa thin and transparent.

Features not available.

Occurs in NEQ. Altitudinal range from 70 to 300 m. Grows in gallery forest or eucalypt woodland and depauperate deciduous vine thicket on low rocky hills, on basalt or metamorphics.

Cucumis sp. Little Annan River (B.Gray 101) [Provisional HISPID phrase name].