CUCURBITACEAE

the gourd family of flowering plants, belonging to the order Violales and containing about 90 genera and 700 species of food and ornamental plants. It includes the gourds, melons, squashes, and pumpkins and is occasionally placed in its own order (Cucurbitales). Most species are prostrate or climb by tendrils. They are annual herbs native to temperate and tropical areas. No member of the family tolerates frost or cold soil. Most species are extremely sensitive to temperatures near freezing, a factor that limits their geographic distribution and area of cultivation. The family includes such economically important food plants as pumpkin, cucumber, gherkin, watermelon, muskmelon, summer squash, winter squash, chayote, cassabanana, squash, and gourd. Cucurbits have a generally low nutrient content; one exception is the winter squash (certain cultivars of Cucurbita maxima, C. moschata, C. pepo, etc.). Members of the family are fast-growing, with long-stalked, palmate leaves that alternate along the stem. Most species have unisexual flowers, which are borne in the leaf axils and have five white or yellow petals. At the side of the leafstalk in annual species there is a simple, sometimes branched, spirally coiled tendril. It is generally regarded by most botanists to be a modified shoot. There are five sepals in each flower; male flowers have five anthers, and female flowers have five carpels. The fruit in most species is a fleshy, many-seeded berry with a tough rind, often attaining considerable size.