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Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standley

Synonym	:	Lagenaria leucantha (Duch.) Rusby
Family	:	Cucurbitaceae
Local name	:	English-Bottle gourd Malayalam-Churakka
Flowering and fruiting period	:	June-February
Distribution	:	Tropical Asia and Africa; cultivated in warmer regions of the world
Distribution in kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	In fields
Uses	:	Used as vegetable
Key botanical characters : Annual, climber or trailer. Tendril 2-fid. Stem densely hairy. Leaves palmate, broadly ovate, reniform or sub-orbicular, cordate, obscurely 3-5-lobed, lobes rounded, 3.0-23 x 4-23 cm; petiole 2.7-13 cm long with a pair of small apical lateral conical glands. Both male and female flowers solitary; male peduncle as long as petiole, female somewhat shorter. Corolla white, petals of male flower obovate, apiculate, 2.7-4.5 cm long, 1.8-3.7 cm broad. Staminal filaments 3-4 mm long; anthers oblong, coherent, included; thecae triplicate. Petals of female flowers c. 30 x 24 mm. Ovary ovoid, villous, 11-17 mm long, 6-8 mm across. Fruit large, subglobose, ellipsoid, lageniform, sometimes biventricose, green or greenish-yellow, hairy, indehiscent