Page "Cucurbitaceae" Paragraph 3

Most of the plants in this family are annual vines but there are also woody lianas, thorny shrubs, and trees ( Dendrosicyos ).

Many species have large, yellow or white flowers.

The stems are hairy and pentangular.

Tendrils are present at 90 ° to the leaf petioles at nodes.

Leaves are exstipulate alternate simple palmately lobed or palmately compound.

The flowers are unisexual, with male and female flowers on different plants ( dioecious ) or on the same plant ( monoecious ).

The female flowers have inferior ovaries.

The fruit is often a kind of modified berry called a pepo.