Cucurbita moschata Duchesne, Ess. Hist. Nat. Courges. 7. 1786; Cogn. in A. & C. DC., Monogr. Phan. 3: 546. 1881; Clarke in Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Lnd. 2: 622. 1879; Chakravarty, Monogr. Ind. Cucurbit. in Rec Bot. Surv. Ind.17(1): 123. 1959; Stewart in Nasir & Ali, Ann. Cat. Vasc. Pl. Pak and Kashm. 704. 1972; C. Jeffrey, Kew Bull. 34(4): 799. 1780; Fl. China @ eFloras.org vol. 19 p. 56; Nazim & Naqvi, Fl. Pak. @ eFloras.org p. 49; C. pepo var. moschata (Duch.) Duch., Encycl. 2: 152. 1786; Pepo moschata (Duch.) Britton. Brook. Bot. Gard. Mem. 1: 96. 1918; C. columbiana (Zhit.) Bukasov. Trudy Prikl. Bot. 47: 531. 1930.

Plants annual, creeping or climbing. Stem up to 2.5 m, densely white setose and puberulent with very short hairs. Petiole robust, 8-29 cm, setose and puberulent with very short hairs; leaf blade broadly ovate or ovate-orbicular or rarely reniform, 12-25 cm x 20-30 cm (broader than long), 5-7-angled or -lobed, lobes ovate to broadly triangular or broadly obovate, abaxially densely hirsute or hirsutulous, less densely hairy adaxially; leaf margin dentate, denticulate or mucronate; leaf base cordate, lobe apices acute or obtuse or shortly acuminate. Tendrils multifid (3-5 branched), setose and puberulent. Plants monoecious; male and female flowers bracteate, bract hood- like, pubescent, green. MALE FLOWERS: Solitary axillary, ca. 9 cm across, yellow; pedicel ca. 15 cm long, setose and puberulent or scaberulous. Hypanthium cupulate, 5-7 mm long, densely villous; lobes 5, 1.2-1.5(-2.5) cm long, linear-lanceolate, distally foliaceous. Corolla tubular- campanulate, ca. 8 cm x 6 cm; lobes ovate-rhomboid, 4.2 cm x 3.2 cm, mucronate, pale yellow, green veins at base, margin reflexed, rugose (adaxial surface puberulent, abaxial surface with hairs prominently on veins). Stamens 3; filaments free, 6 mm long, dilated at base, ca. 8 mm broad, glabrous or sparsely hairy at base; anthers connivent into a cylindrical head, ca. 15 mm, one 1-celled and two 2-celled, anther cells linear, pistillodes absent. FEMALE FLOWERS: Solitary axillary, 8 cm long and 8 cm across. Bracts, calyx and corolla as in male flowers. Staminodes 3, broad. Tricarpellary, syncarpous, ovary inferior, 1-locular, ovules numerous, placentation parietal, ca. 3 cm x 2-2.5 cm, densely pubescent; style one; stigmas 3, each bilobed. Fruiting pedicel/ peduncle robust, 5-7 cm, angular-sulcate, abruptly expanded at point of fruit attachment, hardened, woody.

Fruit variable in shape, size and colour. Seeds numerous, grey-white, cream, light brown, ovate-elliptic, oblong or obovate, 10-15 x 7-10 mm, margin thickened. (Fruits not observed)

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