Cucurbitaceae
Includes about 120 genera and more than 700 species mostly of tropical and subtropical regions. Represented by 9 genera in Saudi Arabia.
This family is of great economic importance and includes a large number of vegetables and fruits like Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsumara & Nakai, the Watermelon (البطيخ - حبحب), Cucumis melo L. the Melon (plau), Cucumis sativus L., the Cucumber (خيار), Cucurbita maxima Lam. and Cucurbita pepo L. the Pumpkin, Squashes and Marrows (قرع - كوسا), Lagenaria siceraria Standl., the Gourd (دبا ، يقطين) Luffa cylindrica Roem, the Luffa (لوف), Momordica charantia L., the Bitter Gourd (كريلا), etc., etc.
Herbaceous or woody, usually tendrillar climbers or trailing, monoecious, sometimes dioecious plants. Leaves alternate, simple, palmately veined, undivided to deeply palmately or pinnately lobed or palmate compound; tendrils lateral, stipular in position, simple or proximately branched, rarely missing. Flowers actinomorphic, unisexual rarely bisexual; female flowers more commonly solitary than male; male inflorescences when present, usually more branched than the female inflorescence, the floral structures borne on a shallow to prominent hypanthium. Calyx gamosepalous, variously 5 - lobed. Corolla gamopetalous, rotate to campanulate, 5 - lobed. Stamens basically 5 and alternate to petals and equidistant or modified to appear in the form of 2 pairs and one single or 4 or 3 with two double and one single; filaments and anthers free or variously united; the anther - thecae straight or with various configurations and degrees of convolution. Female flowers epigynous and usually with staminodes. Ovary inferior of (2- ) 3 ( -5) carpels, 1 - celled with the parietal placentae growing inwards; ovules many; style 1; stigmas 3. Fruit usually berry - like, indehiscent, sometimes at maturity spongy and opening by a lid.