''Coccinia sessilifolia'' is a species of ''

Coccinia The scarlet gourds are a genus (''Coccinia'' from the Greek, ''kokkinia'' or ''kokkinias'' - "red" or "scarlet") with 25 species. It is distributed in sub- Saharan Africa and with one species, ''C. grandis'' also in South and South-east Asia, a ...

'' from southern Africa.

Description

Perennial,

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

climber. The plants produce a woody

hypocotyl The hypocotyl (short for "hypocotyledonous stem", meaning "below seed leaf") is the stem of a germinating seedling, found below the cotyledons (seed leaves) and above the radicle (root). Eudicots As the plant embryo grows at germination, it send ...

tuber Tubers are a type of enlarged structure used as storage organs for nutrients in some plants. They are used for the plant's perennation (survival of the winter or dry months), to provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing ...

and herbaceous, up to 5 m long shoots. The shoots are glabrous and have a waxy bluish green cover. Leaves are alternate usually sessile. Only the first leaves leaves of the shoots and in rare cases on mature shoots, short petioles can be observed. The lamina is 1.5–12.5 × 2.2–13.5 cm, usually profoundly 5-lobate, more or less amplexicaulous. Upper lamina glabrous with clear to whitish pustules. Lower lamina paler than upper lamina, glabrous, often with small dark glands along the main nerves. Tendrils are simple, very rarely unequally bifid. Probracts up to 1.7 mm long but usually missing. Flowers in each sex usually solitary, sometimes male flowers are in few-flowered racemes. Receptacle pale green, glabrous. Calyx teeth 1.5–3.5 mm long, lanceolate to (narrow) triangulate, erect to reflexed. Corolla 1.5–3 cm long, whitish cream to pale yellow, rarely dull orange-brown with conspicuous green venation, lobes 0.9–2 cm. Stamens 3, reduced to staminodia in female flowers. Anthers in male flowers sinuate, in a globose head. Ovary cylindrical, glabrous. Style in male flowers missing, in female flowers columnar, greenish yellow. Stigmas bulging, greenish yellow. Fruit 8–12 × 3–4 cm, ellipsoid to oblong, when immature green with white longitudinal spots to stripes with waxy bloom, ripe red. Seeds 6–8 × 3–3.5 × 1–1.5 mm, more or less symmetrically obovate, face flat. Male and female plants have (2''n''=) 24 equally sized chromosomes .

Distribution

''Coccinia sessilifolia'' occurs in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

(

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

, Free State,

Limpopo Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while the provincial legislature is ...

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...

, North West, and western

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi T ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

( Erongo, Khomas,

Oshana Oshana is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, its capital is Oshakati. The towns of Oshakati, Ongwediva and Ondangwa, all situated with this region, form an urban cluster with the second largest population concentration in Namibia after the ...

, Otjozondjupa), and

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

( Central District. Kgatleng, North-West District, South-East District).

Ecology

Semi-arid open habitats, except for Cape region and high mountains. Flowering January–May, October–December.

Systematics and evolution

According to molecular DNA analyses, ''Coccinia sessilifolia'' is related to other

n species, such as ''

Coccinia hirtella The scarlet gourds are a genus (''Coccinia'' from the Greek, ''kokkinia'' or ''kokkinias'' - "red" or "scarlet") with 25 species. It is distributed in sub-Saharan Africa and with one species, ''C. grandis'' also in South and South-east Asia, an ...

'', ''

Coccinia mackenii The scarlet gourds are a genus (''Coccinia'' from the Greek, ''kokkinia'' or ''kokkinias'' - "red" or "scarlet") with 25 species. It is distributed in sub-Saharan Africa and with one species, ''C. grandis'' also in South and South-east Asia, an ...

'', and '' Coccinia quinqueloba''. Some populations from the western part of Limpopo province have long petioles, but share all other characters with ''Coccinia sessilifolia''. These were described as a distinct species: ''Coccinia variifolia'' A.Meeuse. Due to the strong similarities and the close relationship in the molecular phylogeny, Holstein (2015) interpreted that these populations are better dealt with as a variety of ''C. sessilifolia''. Since long petioles are the dominant character state in all closer relatives, ''Coccinia sessilifolia'' var. ''variifolia'' can either be interpreted as a relict of long-petiolate ancestors or a secondary development of an ancestral character.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q15532159 sessilifolia