Floral Characters and Structure of Cucurbitacase

Floral Characters of Cucurbitacase:

(i) Inflorescence: Solitary, axilary, or Cumes or in panicles Unisexual.

(ii) Flower: Regular, unisexual, bisexual, small or large, showy, white or yellow, epigynous.

(iii) Calyx: Sepals five, fused pointed, petalnd companulate, imbricate estivation.

(iv) Corolla: Petals 5, fused free but fused at base only in Momordica.

(v) Androecium: Usually 5-stamens, some times-3, free combined to form a central column. Syngenesious or polyandrous.

Floral Structure:

Small unisexual flower crowded on a fleshy erect column or spadix terminating the stem and more or less enclosed in a long bract or spathe. Spathe may be sepaloid or peraloid.

Flower – Flowers small sessile, regular, unisexual rerely, biesual spadix densely flowered. Perianths absent, many stamen arranged in two whorls forms synadrium as in lcocasia or colocasis , carpel, one or two ovary superior 1-3 celled ovules one or more in each celled style short.