Helvacı Kabağı

Annual. Leaves shallowly 5-lobed or subentire, coarsely hairy on both surfaces with hispidulous soft hairs, margin densely and minutely dentate. Petiole hairy, not pungent. Flowers faintly scented. Calyx lobes linear. Fruiting peduncle circular, striated, corky or spongy, not expanded at the attachment. Fruit generally oval or rounded, bluntly ribbed, large, upto c. 2 m in diameter; flesh yellow or reddish when ripe. Seeds white, brown or bronze, strongly margi¬nate.

Cultivated in Nepal, fide Bull. Dept. Med. Pl. Nep. 7: 91 (1976).

Distribution: Probably South American in origin. Cultivated throughout India and Pakistan and elsewhere.