Cucumis ritchiei

Cucumis ritchiei (C.B.Clarke) Ghebret. & Thulin, Novon 17: 178 2007. (Syn: Dicoelospermum ritchiei C.B.Clarke; Mukia ritchiei (C.B.Clarke) W.J.de Wilde & Duyfjes (Unresolved));

Images by Sushant More – validation by Susanne Renner

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Prostrate or climbing, hirsute herbs. Leaves alternate, 2-4 x 2-4 cm, simple, ovate or orbicular, dentate, hispid, cordate at base, faintly lobed, lobes 3-5, obtuse at lobe ends; petioles 2-5 cm long;Ttndrils slender. Male flowers clustered on 2-5 mm long; pedicels 0.5-1.5 cm long peduncles. Calyx tube 3 x 2 mm, hispid outside, green. Corolla up to 6 mm long, yellow, pubescent outside, lobes spreading. Stamens 3, 2 with two-loculed anther and 1 with one loculed anther, included, arising from the base of the corolla; pistillodes trilobed, up to 1 mm long. Female flowers solitary; pedicels up to 3 cm long. Calyx tube 3-4 x 2-3 mm, hispid outside; lobes 5, 2-3 mm long, linear green. Corolla up to 1 x 0.5 cm, yellow, hispid outside, lobes spreading. Staminodes 0. Ovary up to 1 x 0.3 cm, linear-ellipsoid, pubescent; style 1 mm long, arising from a copular disk, stigma 1 x 1 mm, flattened, trilobed at apex. Berries 1-1.5 x 0.2-0.3 cm, linear-ellipsoid, 3 chambered hispid; seeds 3-4 x 2-2.5 mm, broadly ovoid.

Flowering and fruiting: June-December
Along hedges and bushes
Peninsular India (Endemic)

(Attributions – Dr. N Sasidharan (Dr. B P Pal Fellow), Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi


Cucumis ritchiei : 1 post by 1 author. Attachments (4).

Rare climber found in western ghat’s on slopes id by COOKE, flora of Bombay presidency 

Apparently endemic

Photo may be includes female flowers as in description says fruits are sessile

Reported from Matheran and Belgaum

Cucumis ritchiei /Dicoelospermum ritchiei (cucurbitaceae) Gogra in Marathi cucurbitaceae

August 2013, Sihangad Fort

Please help if id is wrong

Yes, that photo [efloraofindia:219182] is Cucumis ritchiei. I have great photos of the sessile fruits and seeds, but had not seen the flowers before your photo. 

Very interesting, the plant is exceedingly like Mukia scabrella Arn., just as FBI notes, and flowering season also matches. And there is one Mukia leiosperma Thwaites too, don’t know distribution though.

Hope, the ID is correct, at least I can see one difference – minute calyx teeth.