Cucurbita okeechobeensis subsp. okeechobeensis

[C E]
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 6. Treatment on page 53. Mentioned on page 52.

Plants annual; roots fibrous. Stems prostrate or climbing, sometimes rooting adventitiously at nodes, to 12 m, usually coarsely hirsute to villous with flattened, vitreous hairs to glabrate or glabrous, rarely sparsely short-hispid, without pustulate-based hairs; tendrils 3-branched 1–3 cm above base, glabrous, eglandular. Leaves: petiole 5–15 cm, sparsely hispid to pilose-hirsute or glabrous or glabrate; blade orbiculate to suborbiculate or reniform, shallowly to deeply 5–7-lobed, 4.5–15 × 8–20 cm, usually broader than long or equally so, base cordate, lobes triangular to acuminate-triangular or subrhombic, midveins of leaf lobes not distinctly elongate-whitened, margins closely mucronulate to denticulate, sometimes irregularly toothed, surfaces hispid to hispid-hirsute or villous-hirsute to sparsely hirsute-villous or glabrate, sometimes mottled with silvery-green adaxially, eglandular. Peduncles in fruit shallowly 5-ribbed, abruptly expanded at point of fruit attachment, hardened, woody. Flowers: hypanthium campanulate, 5–6 mm; sepals lanceolate to subulate, 5–8 mm; corolla cream to pale creamy yellow, campanulate, 6–9 cm (staminate shorter); anther filaments glabrous; ovary densely pubescent. Pepos light green with pale white stripes at maturity, green-streaked or flecked with white or dark green, tan to brown when dry, globose to broadly ovoid, (5–)7–9(–11) cm, surface smooth; flesh intensely bitter. Seeds whitish to light gray, ovate, 7–12 mm, margins thickened-raised, surfaces smooth. 2n = 40.


Phenology: Flowering Mar–Nov.
Habitat: Pond-apple swamps, floodplain forests, power-line cuts through cypress-hardwood swamps, hardwood swamp edges, spoil islands, climbing on pond apple, elderberry, and buttonbush, often associated with alligator nests, canal and ditch banks, wet road shoulders
Elevation: 0–20 m

Discussion

Of conservation concern.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.
Guy L. Nesom +
Pepo okeechobeensis +
0–20 m +
Pond-apple swamps, floodplain forests, powPond-apple swamps, floodplain forests, power-line cuts through cypress-hardwood swamps, hardwood swamp edges, spoil islands, climbing on pond apple, elderberry, and buttonbush, often associated with alligator nests, canal and ditch banks, wet road shoulders canal and ditch banks, wet road shoulders +
Flowering Mar–Nov. +
Gentes Herb. +
Conservation concern +
Cucurbita okeechobeensis subsp. okeechobeensis +
Cucurbita okeechobeensis +
subspecies +