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17-446: A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit . The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit. Botanically, a melon is a kind of berry , specifically a " pepo ". The word melon derives from Latin melopepo , which is the latinization of the Greek μηλοπέπων ( mēlopepōn ), meaning "melon", itself

34-516: A compound of μῆλον ( mēlon ), "apple", treefruit ( of any kind )" and πέπων ( pepōn ), amongst others "a kind of gourd or melon". Many different cultivars have been produced, particularly of cantaloupes . Melons were thought to have originated in Africa. However, recent studies suggest a Southwest Asian origin, especially Iran and India ; from there, they gradually began to appear in Europe toward

51-459: A family in which the leaves are always sessile. In some other plant groups, such as the speedwell genus Veronica , petiolate and sessile leaves may occur in different species. In the grasses ( Poaceae ), the leaves are apetiolate, but the leaf blade may be narrowed at the junction with the leaf sheath to form a pseudopetiole , as in Pseudosasa japonica . In plants with compound leaves ,

68-519: A petiolule is called a pulvinulus. In some plants, the petioles are flattened and widened to become phyllodes (also known as phyllodia or cladophylls) and the true leaves may be reduced or absent. Thus, the phyllode comes to serve the functions of the leaf. Phyllodes are common in the genus Acacia , especially the Australian species, at one time put in Acacia subgenus Phyllodineae . In Acacia koa ,

85-463: A standardized suffix for plant family names in modern taxonomy. The genus name comes from the Classical Latin word cucurbita , meaning "gourd". Most of the plants in this family are annual vines , but some are woody lianas , thorny shrubs, or trees ( Dendrosicyos ). Many species have large, yellow or white flowers. The stems are hairy and pentangular. Tendrils are present at 90° to

102-401: Is a stalk that attaches a leaf to the plant stem. In petiolate leaves the leaf stalk may be long (as in the leaves of celery and rhubarb ), or short (for example basil ). When completely absent, the blade attaches directly to the stem and is said to be sessile . Subpetiolate leaves have an extremely short petiole, and may appear sessile. The broomrape family Orobanchaceae is an example of

119-525: The Paleocene epoch, found at Shirley Canal, Montana . It was described for the first time in 1924 by the paleobotanist Frank Hall Knowlton . The fossil leaf is palmate , trilobed with rounded lobal sinuses and an entire or serrate margin. It has a leaf pattern similar to the members of the genera Kedrostis , Melothria and Zehneria . The most recent classification of Cucurbitaceae delineates 15 tribes : Modern molecular phylogenetics suggest

136-446: The rhizome and produces the leaf at its end. Botanically, it is categorized as a vegetable but, culinarily, it is more often used as a fruit. The longest known petiole is that of the royal waterlily or iaupê jaçanã Victoria amazonica which is up to 23 ft (7.0 m) in length. 'Petiole' comes from Latin petiolus , or 'little foot', 'stem', an alternative diminutive of 'pes', 'foot'. The regular diminutive 'pediculus'

153-451: The Spanish. Organizations like Native Seeds/SEARCH have made an effort to collect and preserve these and other heritage seeds. Melons in genus Cucumis are culinary fruits, and include the majority of culinary melons. All but a handful of culinary melon varieties belong to the species Cucumis melo L. In 2018, world production of melons was 27 million tonnes , led by China with 46% of

170-671: The end of the Western Roman Empire . Melons are known to have been grown by the ancient Egyptians. However, recent discoveries of melon seeds dated between 1350 and 1120 BCE in Nuragic sacred wells have shown that melons were first brought to Europe by the Nuragic civilization of Sardinia during the Bronze Age . Melons were among the earliest plants to be domesticated in the Old World and among

187-578: The first crop species brought by westerners to the New World . Early European settlers in the New World are recorded as growing honeydew and casaba melons as early as the 1600s. A number of Native American tribes in New Mexico, including Acoma, Cochiti, Isleta, Navajo, Santo Domingo and San Felipe, maintain a tradition of growing their own characteristic melon cultivars, derived from melons originally introduced by

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204-785: The following relationships: Alsomitra Bayabusua Hemsleya Gomphogyne Gynostemma Neoalsomitra Fevillea Pteropepon Cyclantheropsis Sicydium Gerrardanthus Zanonia Siolmatra Xerosicyos Actinostemma Indofevillea Baijiania Thladiantha Siraitia Momordica Cogniauxia Telfairia Ampelosicyos Ecballium Bryonia Austrobryonia Nothoalsomitra Hodgsonia Echinocystis Marah Echinopepon Frantzia Cyclanthera Hanburia Sicyos Linnaeosicyos Luffa Trichosanthes Schizopepon Herpetospermum Bambekea Eureiandra Petiole (botany) The petiole

221-438: The leaf petioles at nodes. Leaves are exstipulate , alternate, simple palmately lobed or palmately compound. The flowers are unisexual , with male and female flowers on different plants ( dioecious ) or on the same plant ( monoecious ). The female flowers have inferior ovaries . The fruit is often a kind of modified berry called a pepo . One of the oldest fossil cucurbits so far is † Cucurbitaciphyllum lobatum from

238-438: The leaflets are attached to a continuation of the petiole called the rachis . Each leaflet may be attached to the rachis by a short stalk called the petiolule. There may be swollen regions at either end of the petiole known as pulvina (singular = pulvinus ) that are composed of a flexible tissue that allows leaf movement. Pulvina are common in the bean family Fabaceae and the prayer plant family Marantaceae . A pulvinus on

255-483: The phyllodes are leathery and thick, allowing the tree to survive stressful environments. The petiole allows partially submerged hydrophytes to have leaves floating at different depths, the petiole being between the node and the stem. In plants such as rhubarb ( Rheum rhabarbarum ), celery ( Apium graveolens ), artichokes , and cardoons ( Cynara cardunculus ), the petioles ('stalks' or 'ribs') are cultivated as edible crops. The petiole of rhubarb grows directly from

272-458: The total (table). Turkey , Iran , and India each produced more than 1 million tonnes. Cucurbitaceae See text. The Cucurbitaceae ( / k j uː ˌ k ɜːr b ɪ ˈ t eɪ s iː ˌ iː / ), also called cucurbits or the gourd family, are a plant family consisting of about 965 species in 101 genera . Those of most agricultural, commercial or nutritional value to humans include: The plants in this family are grown around

289-466: The tropics and in temperate areas of the world, where those with edible fruits were among the earliest cultivated plants in both the Old and New Worlds. The family Cucurbitaceae ranks among the highest of plant families for number and percentage of species used as human food. The name Cucurbitaceae comes to international scientific vocabulary from Neo-Latin , from Cucurbita , the type genus , + -aceae ,

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