Flora of New Zealand Series

squirting cucumber

Annual or short-lived perennial herb with stout rootstock. Stems running, ± succulent, hispid and with dense short soft hairs. Petiole to c. 7 cm long. Lamina to 10 × 8 cm (to 18 × 18 cm in cultivation), ± triangular with a pair of basal lobes and a pair of short lateral lobes, with scattered scabrid hairs above, densely hairy and hispid below especially on the prominent nerve reticulum; margins strongly sinuate and undulate; base deeply cordate; apex obtuse. Racemes few-flowered; pedicels short, densely hairy. Calyx c. 10 mm long, densely hairy. Petals 10-17-(20) × 6-7 mm, pale yellow, elliptic-oblong, densely hairy outside, apiculate. Filaments c. 3 mm long; anthers irregularly lobed; pollen orange. ♀ fls often in same axil as ♂ fls but somewhat smaller. Fr. ± pendent on a recurved pedicel, 3-5 cm long; pulp almost transparent. Seed c. 5 mm long, dark brown.

N.: known from a few collections only, perimeter of farm garden near Ngatea (Hauraki Plains), and an isolated plant from a wharf at Auckland.

Mediterranean region, S. Russia, Azores 1980

FL Dec-Feb.

The method of seed dispersal is striking: the seeds and watery pulp are forcibly ejected several metres immediately the fr. is detached from the pedicel.