Flora of New Zealand Series

water melon

Annual with long, procumbent, densely softly hairy stems. Petioles to c. 8 cm long, with dense, soft hairs. Lamina pinnatisect, often almost divided to midrib, to c. 15 × 13 cm, broad-ovate; lobes irregularly subdivided or toothed, hairy, blunt. Peduncles 1-3 cm long, densely hairy. Calyx lobed to 1/2 way or more, usually densely hairy; lobes narrow-lanceolate to linear. Corolla lobed nearly to base; lobes 12-16 × 8-12 mm, often unequal, ± elliptic, yellow with green raised veins, obtuse or mucronate. Ovary woolly at first, soon glabrate. Fr. subglobose to ± ellipsoid, becoming very large (to > 40 cm long in cultivation); rind green, hard; pulp red, sweet and very succulent. Seeds dark, shining.

N.: established locally; S.: Port of Nelson, Greymouth, also a casual in Christchurch.

Tropical Africa 1870

An escape from cultivation in waste places, rubbish dumps and near settlements, and in coastal sands.

FL Dec-Mar.

In cooler areas, plants probably originate from discarded seed, and do not reach maturity. The sp. is often known as C. vulgaris.