Indofevillea Chatterjee
Indofevillea Chatterjee, Nature 158: 345. 1946 and Kew Bull. 2: 119. 1947.
Type: Indofevillea khasiana Chatterjee, G. Mann s.n. (CAL), India, Assam [Meghalaya], Khasi Hills.

Woody climber with dioecious sex system and many meters long perennial shoots growing high up into the canopies. The leaves simple, petiolate, with large, up to 30 cm long, leathery blade, entire and broadly ovate-cordate in outline. The tendrils are bifid, 20-30 cm long, coiling above and below branching point. The flowers are medium-sized, male flowers in axillary panicles, female flowers solitary or in few-flowered panicles. The five sepals are ovate-lanceolate, to 6 mm long. The five petals are yellow or cream-coloured, ovate-lanceolate, to 10 mm long. The five stamens are inserted near the base of the tube on very short filaments, four in pairs, one free. All anthers are monothecous, the thecae are reniform and hairy, containing tricolporate, reticulate, small to medium-sized pollen (polar axis c. 49 µm, equatorial axis c. 53 µm, (Khunwasi 1998)). The ovary is ellipsoid to oblong. The fruits are oblong, solitary or 2-6 in clusters, ca. 30 cm long, indehiscent with thick woody pericarp. The many seeds are ovoid, compressed, 3.5-4 cm long, ca. 2 cm broad, 0.5 cm thick, with yellowish, smooth testa, faintly margined.

Two species in open forest on mountain slopes of Northeast India, Bhutan, and Tibet.

Literature

Khunwasi, C. 1998. Palynology of the Cucurbitaceae. Doctoral Dissertation Naturwiss. Fak., University of Innsbruck.

Schaefer, H., Heibl, C., and S.S. Renner. 2009. Gourds afloat: a dated phylogeny reveals an Asian origin of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae) and numerous oversea dispersal events. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 276: 843-851.

Schaefer, H., Bartholomew, B. and D. Boufford. 2012. Indofevillea jiroi (Cucurbitaceae), a new floral oil producing species from Northeastern Myanmar. Harvard Papers in Botany 17: 323-332.