Sex Forms in Cucurbitaceous Vegetables

Sex Forms in Cucurbitaceous Vegetables

• Monoecious: Staminate and pistillate flowers are found on the same plant.
  • Staminate flowers appear first, followed by pistillate flowers.
  • Examples: ash gourd, bitter gourd, bottle gourd, cucumber, musk melon, pumpkin, ridge gourd, and watermelon.
• Dioecious: Staminate and pistillate flowers are on separate plants.
  • Male plants have only staminate flowers.
  • Female plants have only pistillate flowers.
  • Examples: Coccinia indica (ivy gourd), Trichosanthes dioica (pointed gourd), Momordica dioica (spine gourd), and Momordica cochinchinensis (sweet gourd).
• Andromonoecious: Plants have staminate and hermaphrodite flowers.
  • Examples include muskmelon and watermelon.
• Gynomonoecious: Plants bear pistillate and hermaphrodite flowers.
  • Seen in some cucumber varieties.
• Trimonoecious/Gynandromonoecious: Plants have staminate, pistillate, and hermaphrodite flowers.
  • Rare in cucumber, muskmelon, and ridge gourd.
• Gynoecious: Plants bear only pistillate flowers.
  • Example: some gynoecious cucumber lines.
• Hermaphrodite: Male and female parts are present in the same flower.
  • Example: Satputia variety of ridge gourd.

Bitter Gourd (Momordica charantia)

• 2n=22
• Monoecious, with unisexual, axillary, and solitary flowers.
• Prominent sessile foliaceous bract at the base of the pedicel.
• Calyx is deeply 5-fid, corolla is 5-lobed rotate, and yellow.
• Three stamens with free filaments and united anthers.
• Inferior ovary with 3 stigmas.
• Fruit is a berry with fleshy tubercles on its surface.
  • Color varies from white to dark green, turning yellow at ripening.
• Numerous seeds with a warty surface.
• Anthesis: 5 am to 10 am
• Stigma receptive 24 hours before and after anthesis, with peak receptivity at anthesis.

Explore the diverse sex forms of cucurbitaceous vegetables in this quiz. Learn about monoecious, dioecious, and other reproductive structures in plants such as cucumber and watermelon. Test your knowledge on the examples and characteristics of these forms.