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The bottle gourd, Lagenaria siceraria, is in the Cucurbitaceae (Gourd) family. Below are cited descriptions: Ethnobotany of Hawaii: “General: Downy (hairy), annual, wide-spreading
vine,
with branched tendrils. Leaves: Round, heart-shaped, five-angled or lobed,
4-16 inches in diameter. Flowers: Night-blooming, white, solitary at leaf axils
(sic),
about 1 ½ inches long. Fruit: Young fruit is soft, and covered with downy pubescence
(hairs). As fruit matures, it becomes smooth, is green and mottled or white. It
varies greatly in shape, being flattened-globose, globose, club-shaped, crooked
or twisted, from short and thick to 4 feet by 1 food. Pulp is white. Seeds: Seeds
are light-colored, flat, and about 1/2 inch long."
Flora
of the Hawaiian Islands: "LAGENARIA, Ser. Flowers mostly... solitary.
Male fl. on long peduncles. ... Petals 5, free, obeordate or obovate. Stames inserted into the calyx-tube, the filaments free;
anthers enclosed, slightly cohering, their flexuose cells contiguous or discreet, the connective not produced. Female fl.
on shorter peduncles. Calyx and corolla as before, but in the tube of the former adnate. No rudiments of stamens. Ovary with
3 parietal placentas and many horizontal ovules. Style short, thick, the 3 stigmas 2-lobed. Fruit variously shaped, woody,
indehiscent, many-seeded. Seeds compressed, margined. -- A tall, pubescent, musk-scented climber. Leaves ovate or reniform-cordate
or rounded, dentate, the petiole with 2 glands at the base. ... Flowers large, white. ... Fruit elongate, often measuring
4ft and more."
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