Flora of North America species comparison

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Marah macrocarpa

Marah fabacea

Chilicothe, Cucamonga manroot, large-fruit manroot, wild cucumber

California man-root
Leaf

blades deeply 5(–7)-lobed, 5–30 cm wide.

blades shallowly 5–7-lobed, 5–10 cm wide, surfaces not glaucous.
Flowers

sepals (pistillate) deltate, 0.4–0.6 mm, sometimes vestigial;

petals (1–)3–10(–12) mm (pistillate) or 5–8(–10) mm (staminate), corolla white, shallowly cupulate to rotate;

staminodia scalelike or absent in pistillate flowers.

sepals (pistillate) vestigial;

petals 3–5 mm (pistillate) or 1.5–2.5 mm (staminate), corolla yellowish green to cream-yellow or (especially inland) white, rotate;

staminodia absent in pistillate flowers.
Capsules

yellowish green at maturity, short-ellipsoid to broadly ovoid, usually rounded at both ends, sometimes sharply beaked, (5–)8–12 cm, surface densely echinate, spinules rigid, 5–30 mm.

yellowish green at maturity, globose, 4–5 cm, surface sparsely to densely echinate, spinules rigid or flexible, 4–12 mm.
Seeds

4–20(–24), usually obovate to oblong-elliptic, sometimes subglobose, not flat at one end, slightly compressed, 15–20 mm.

1–4, oblong-ovate, ± compressed, 15–20 mm.
2n

= 32, 64.

= 32.

Marah macrocarpa

Marah fabacea
Phenology Flowering (Jan–)Mar–May. Flowering Feb–May.
Habitat Pinyon-juniper woodlands, Joshua tree-pinyon transition zones, coastal sage, chaparral, oak woodlands, rocky hillsides, riparian woods and thickets, stream bottoms, disturbed sites, roadsides Streamsides, washes, coastal strand, rock outcrops, cliff bases, ledges, grasslands, chaparral, oak woodlands, riparian woodlands, open hillsides, roadsides, powerline cuts
Elevation 0–1500(–2100) m (0–4900(–6900) ft) 20–1400 m (100–4600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur)
[WildflowerSearch map]
from FNA
CA; NV
[WildflowerSearch map]
Discussion

K. M. Stocking (1955b) enlarged Marah macrocarpa to include M. micrantha Dunn [as M. macrocarpa var. micrantha (Dunn) Stocking], which is known only from

Cedros Island off the Pacific coast of Baja California, outside of Vizcaíno Bay. But the relatively small flowers and seeds of the latter [staminate flowers 3–6(–8) mm diam. versus 8–13 mm diam.; seeds 12–13 mm versus 15–20 mm] and its apparent geographical disjunction suggest that treatment of M. micrantha at specific rank is justified.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Marah fabacea var. fabacea was mapped by K. M. Stocking (1955b) as confined to near-coastal localities centering around San Francisco Bay, from Marin to Monterey counties; he recognized var. agrestis as the more widely distributed expression of the species. In his view, var. fabacea is characterized by fruits with longer (6–12 mm) and rigid spinules and by seeds more numerous (usually four) and commonly laterally flattened. R. A. Schlising (1993) noted that var. agrestis intergrades more or less completely with plants identifiable as var. fabacea and did not recognize varieties.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 6, p. 24. FNA vol. 6, p. 23.
Parent taxa Cucurbitaceae > Marah Cucurbitaceae > Marah
Sibling taxa
M. fabacea, M. gilensis, M. guadalupensis, M. horrida, M. oregana, M. watsonii
M. gilensis, M. guadalupensis, M. horrida, M. macrocarpa, M. oregana, M. watsonii
Synonyms Echinocystis macrocarpa Echinocystis fabacea, E. fabacea var. inermis, E. inermis, E. scabrida, M. fabacea var. agrestis, M. inermis, Micrampelis fabacea var. agrestis
Name authority (Greene) Greene: Leafl. Bot. Observ. Crit. 2: 36. (1910) (Naudin) Greene: Leafl. Bot. Observ. Crit. 2: 36. (1910)
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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