Cucumis melo subsp. agrestis (Naudin) Pangalo in Zhukovsky, Turq. Agric. 534. 1933; Cucumis melo var. agrestis, Ann. Sci. Nat. Paris ser. 4. 11: 73. 1858; Ann. Sci. Nat. Paris ser.4. 12: 110. 1859; Chakravarty, Fasc. Fl. Ind. 11: 35. 1982; Sharma, J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 81: 230. 1984; Singh and Sharma, Fl. Chamba Distt. 337. 2006.

** Treated as a synonym of Cucumis melo L., Sp. Pl. 1011. 1753.

A much branched prostrate annual or perennial herb. Stem and branches scabrous, setose or hispid. Tendrils simple, filiform, puberulent, ca. 6-8 cm long. Leaves simple, exstipulate; petiole +/- 10 cm long, scabrous or setose, hollow; leaf blade coarsely or shallowly 3-5(-7)-lobed, ca. 11 cm x 15 cm, upper surface scabrid with rigid hairs, on lower surface hispid (small and large) confined to veins only; margin denticulate; sinus truncate. Flowers small, solitary axillary, rarely in groups of 2 or 3, unisexual, actinomorphic, epigynous, yellow. MALE FLOWERS: ca. 2 cm across, 1.5 cm long; pedicels 3 mm, filiform, hispid. Calyx 5, fused, campanulate, ca. 1.3 cm long; tube ca. 5 mm long, densely hispidulous to white villous, hairs up to 5 mm long; lobes ca. 8 mm long, linear or subulate, slightly pubescent, light green. Corolla 5, fused, ca. 1.2 cm x 1.2 cm, yellow; tube 5-6 mm long; lobes 6-9 mm long, ovate-oblong to broadly ovate or obovate, obtuse, mucronate (with green succulent tip), pubescent with short and long hairs. Stamens 3, free, inserted on corolla tube; filaments free, ca. 1.5 mm long and broad; anthers 1.5 mm long, anther cells linear, reflexed or curved, flexuous connective produced beyond anthers, 1.7-2.0 mm, irregularly fid. Pistillode present, 2 mm long, glandular. FEMALE FLOWERS: Solitary axillary, pedicel 3-4 mm long, hispid. Calyx and corolla as in male flowers. Female flowers larger than male flowers, ca. 2.2 cm long. Staminode cup-like around stigma. Tricarpellary, syncarpous, ovary inferior, ellipsoid or fusiform, ca. 1 cm long, densely white villous, ovules numerous, horizontal, placentation parietal; style ca. 1.5 mm long; stigmas 3, each bifid, green. Fruit ellipsoid, oval-globose, 3-5 cm x 1.5-3.0 cm, fleshy, indehiscent, smooth and glabrous, shortly pubescent, generally with dark green stripes. Seeds numerous, ovate-oblong, 4-8 mm x 2.4-4 mm. Fruit pedicel up to 3 cm long.

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