According to different maturity, it can be divided into early-maturing, middle-maturing and late-maturing varieties. Early maturity and medium maturity are called summer melons, and late maturity is called winter melon. Early-maturing varieties mainly include Huangdanzi, Naxigan, Baozi Kekouqi and Shi Tian 40 1. It is characterized by thin skin and fine meat and rich fragrance. Medium-ripe varieties mainly include crisp and juicy red hearts, which are deeply loved by people because of their delicate meat thickness and refreshing fragrance. Late-maturing varieties mainly include black eyebrow, green hemp skin, battery red, green red meat, green melon, yellow white meat and so on.
Hami melon is an annual creeping or climbing herb with angular stems and branches, yellow-brown or white coarse hairs and warty protrusions. Tendrils are slender, simple and puberulent. Petiole is 8- 12 cm long, with grooves and short bristles. The leaves are thick and papery, nearly round or kidney-shaped, with a length and width of 8- 15 cm. The upper surface is rough, and the back is thick and hairy along the veins. The margin is undivided or 3-7-lobed, the tips of lobes are obtuse, serrated, the base is truncated or semicircular, and palmately veined.
Origin environment
Turpan-Hami basin is located in the east of Xinjiang, which is distributed in the east-west direction, facing the Tarim basin and Junggar basin across the mountains from north to south, and surrounded by mountains on all sides. It is a typical continental arid climate. Due to the influence of the northwest mountainous area, the humid airflow is blocked from going south, resulting in extreme dryness, less rainfall, large evaporation, hot summer, severe winter, large temperature difference between day and night, long illumination time, good atmospheric transparency and effective accumulated temperature exceeding 4000℃.
The Hami Basin, which integrates Tianshan Cedar, Desert Populus euphratica, Gobi Salix and Oasis Poplar, stands like a Great Wall in the north of Hami Basin, becoming an important geographical boundary of the basin, intercepting the water vapor from the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean and the Siberian cold air, making the climate, ecological environment and natural landscape completely different between the north and the south. The phenological characteristics of two worlds separated by a mountain are formed: the Balikun basin in the north of the mountain is the environment of northern Xinjiang.