8594.000 Luffa Mill.

Description of the genus

Monoecious annual herbs, prostrate or climbing. Leaves simple. Tendrils 2-6-fid. Male flowers in a raceme. Petals 5, 2-4.5 cm, entire. Stamens 5. Female flowers solitary; ovary densely puberulous; stigma 3-lobed. Mature fruit dry, brownish, opening by an apical lid, fibrous internally. Seeds elliptic, flattened.

Worldwide: 7 species in the tropics

Malawi: 1 cultivated taxon.

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Links to cultivated taxa View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus

Species	Content
cylindrica (L.) M. Roem.	Description, Image

Other sources of information about Luffa:

Our websites:

Flora of Botswana: cultivated Luffa
Flora of Caprivi: cultivated Luffa
Flora of Malawi: Luffa
Flora of Mozambique: Luffa
Flora of Mozambique: cultivated Luffa
Flora of Zambia: Luffa
Flora of Zimbabwe: Luffa
Flora of Zimbabwe: cultivated Luffa

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Luffa
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Luffa
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Luffa
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Luffa
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Luffa
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Luffa
JSTOR Plant Science: Luffa
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Luffa
Plants of the World Online: Luffa
Tropicos: Luffa
Wikipedia: Luffa

Copyright: Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings and Meg Coates Palgrave, 2014-23

Hyde, M.A., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. & Coates Palgrave, M. (2023). Flora of Malawi: Cultivated plants: genus page: Luffa.
https://www.malawiflora.com/cult/genus.php?genus_id=1441, retrieved 25 September 2023

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