Cucurbitaceae
Family- Cucurbitaceae
Popular name- Gourd family
Origin and distribution
The family Cucurbitaceae consists of about 110 genera and 700 species, widespread in tropical and subtropical regions. In Bangladesh, this family is represented by 21 genera and 39 species.
Taxonomic Position (According to Cronqist)
- Kingdom : Plantae
- Division : Magnoliophyta
- Class : Magnoliopsida
- Sub-class : Dilleniidae
- Order : Violales
- Family :Cucurbitaceae
Identifying characters
- Mostly herbaceous climbers, climb by means of tendrils
- Monoecious or dioecious
- Simple, palmately lobed leaves
- Epigynous flowers
- Tricarpellary syncarpous ovary with inferior ovary
- Placentation parietal
- Fruit pepo
Morphological Features
Habit: Herbs or weakly woody shrubs climbers or prostrate, annual or perennial.
Leaves: Alternate, exstipulate, simple, palminerved, palmately or pedately lobed or compound, rarely pinnately divided or pinnately compound, lamina variable in the same species or even in the same plant. Tendrils solitary, lateral, spirally coiled, simple or divided.
Inflorescence: Axillary, cymose solitary or clustered.
Flower: Flowers unisexual, very rarely bisexual, monoecious or dioecious.
Calyx: Sepals five, tubular or campanulate.
Corolla: Petal five, gamo or polypetalous, white, yellow, greenish or rarely blue or red.
Androecium: Stamens usually 5 or 3, of which one often 1-locular and the others 2-locular, but sometimes 4, 2 or even 1, filaments separate or variously united into a column, anthers erect, curved or conduplicate, pistillode present or not. Stamens are synandrous or syngenesous.
Gynoecium: Ovary inferior or nearly completely so, mostly composed of three carpels.
Placentation: Parietal , placentas parietal
Fruit: Generally pepo.
Seeds: Seeds usually many, often compressed, horizontal, erect or pendulous, tuberculate, rarely winged, marginate, exalbuminous.
Floral Formula:
Staminate flower:
K(5) C(5) A (5) G0
Pistillate flower:
K(5) C(5) A 0 G(3)
Floral diagram
Table Some common economically important plants
| Banglaname | English name | Scientificname | Plant parts used | Usefulness |
| Khira, Shasha. | Cucumber | Cucumis sativus | Fruit | Vegetable |
| Chichinga. | Snake gourd
| Trichosanthes anguina | Fruit | Vegetable |
| Lau, Kodu, | Bottle gourd
| Lagenaria vulgaris | Fruit | Vegetable |
| Chalkumra. | White gourd
| Benincasa hispida | Fruit | Vegetable |
| Mistikumra, | Pumpkin
| Cucurbita maxima | Fruit | Vegetable |
| Karala. | Bitter gourd | Momordica charantia | Fruit | Vegetable |
| Dhundul,
| Sponge gourd
| Luffa cylindrica | Fruit | Vegetable |
| Jhinga | Ribbed gourd
| Luffa acutangula | Fruit | Vegetable |
| Potol | Pointed gourd | Trichosanthus diocia | Fruit | Vegetable |
| Kakrol | Teasel gourd | Momordica cochinchinensis ccccochinchinensis | Fruit | Vegetable |
| Bangi | Cucumis melo | Fruit | Vegetable | |
| Tormuz | Water melon | Citrullus lanatus | Fruit | Fruit |
| Bhikumra | Trichosanthes cordata | Fruit | Vegetable |