Chinese scientific name

Cerlin melon

Latin scientific name

Bolbostemma biglandulosum (Hemsl.) Franquet

It is a climbing herb with stems up to 6 meters long and thin branches that are slightly puberulent at first and eventually become hairless. The petiole is thin, 2-5 cm long; the leaf is membranous, nearly round, bright on both sides, 4-7 cm long and wide, with 5 wavy or irregular lobes, the apex is sharp or blunt, and the base is curved and wide-centered. Shape, 0.5-1.5 cm wide, 0.5-0.8 cm deep, with 1 protruding gland at the top of each of the 2 lower lobes. Tendrils filamentous, 2-branched, pubescent or glabrous. Dioecious. The male inflorescence is conical, the inflorescence axis and pedicel are filamentous, the inflorescence axis can be up to 12 cm long, and the pedicel is 1-1.5 cm long; the calyx lobes are linear-lanceolate; the corolla lobes are narrow-lanceolate, light yellow-green, with a tip at the top. Long tail, 6-8 mm long, 1-1.2 mm wide, hairless; 5 stamens, inserted at the base of the calyx tube, united in pairs below the middle of the filament, the remaining 1 is meristematic, the filament is 0 .8 mm, the anthers are oval, yellow, 1 mm long, the septum extends from the anthers in a tail shape, 1-1.2 mm long. Female flowers are solitary, with filamentous pedicels, 10-15 mm long; ovary is densely knobbly, with 3 styles and 2-lobed stigma. The fruit is cylindrical, yellow-green, 3.5-4 cm long and 2 cm in diameter. It has thin and sharp spines and sparse short glandular hairs. The spines are 5-7 mm long. When mature, the top is annularly covered and split. The placenta falls off together, the fruit cover is broad and conical; the seeds are brown, irregular egg-shaped, turtle shell-like, carved, with irregular teeth on the edge, about 1 cm long, 7 mm wide, 1.8 mm thick, with the top There are membranous wings, about 1 cm long, with a shallow lobe at the tip. The flowering period is September and the fruiting period is October.