Flora of North America species comparison

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Coccinia grandis

ivy gourd, scarlet gourd
Stems

glabrous or glabrate, sometimes rooting at nodes.
Leaves

petiole 1–5 cm;

blade 5–10 × 4–9 cm, base cordate with broad sinus, apex acute, mucronate, adaxial surface with 3–8 glands.
Peduncles

1–5 cm.
Flowers

sepals recurved, 2–5 mm;

petals 15–20 mm, apices acute to obtuse-apiculate.
Seeds

6–8 mm, aril red to red-orange.
Vines

climbing, widely spreading, sometimes prostrate.
Pepos

2.5–6 cm.
2n

= 24.

Coccinia grandis
Phenology Flowering May–Nov.
Habitat Trash dumps, thickets, fencerows, cypress swamps
Elevation 0–30 m (0–100 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; TX; e Africa [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Asia (China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam), Pacific Islands, Australia]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

The shoot tips and immature fruits of Coccinia grandis are used in Asian and Indian cooking; long-range dispersal is often the result of introduction by humans. It sometimes has been misidentified as C. cordifolia (Linnaeus) Cogniaux.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 6, p. 45.
Parent taxa Cucurbitaceae > Coccinia
Synonyms Bryonia grandis
Name authority (Linnaeus) Voigt: Hort. Suburb. Calcutt., 59. (1845)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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