Khmeriosicyos W.J. de Wilde & Duyfjes
Khmeriosicyos W.J. de Wilde & Duyfjes, Blumea 49: 441. 2004.
Type: Khmeriosicyos harmandii W. J. de Wilde & Duyfjes; Harmand s.n. in herb. Pierre 4350 (P), Cambodia, Prea Can. 1875/1876.

Herbaceous climber or trailer with monoecious sex system and possibly tuberous root. The leaves are simple, petiolate, the blade pentagonal, deeply 3(-5)-lobed, and up to 7 cm long. Conspicuous, 2-5 mm long probract at the base of the petiole, with several glands. The tendrils are simple. The flowers are small, male flowers are produced in long-pedunculate racemes, the female flowers solitary, often coaxillary with male racemes. The receptacle-tube is shallow, cup-shaped, 5-ribbed with five small, linear sepals. The five petals are ovate-elliptic, 6-8 mm long. The three stamens are inserted halfway up the tube on very short, free filaments. Two anthers are bithecous, one monothecous, free but appressed into a central head. The thecae are triplicate and contain tricolporate, reticulate, medium-sized pollen (polar axis 52 µm, equatorial axis 51 µm, (De Wilde et al. 2004)). The fruit is an ovoid, scabrous berry, c. 3 cm long and 2 cm across. The many seeds are 8.5-9 mm long and 4.5-5 mm broad, strongly compressed and embedded in pulp. The testa is bright brown, finely grooved, with broad, grooved crenulate-tuberculate margin.

Known only from the type specimen in the Paris herbarium, which was collected in Northern Cambodia in 1875/1876. No modern material has been collected, partly because of the problem with civil war and land mines in the type locality.

The specimen has not been sequenced yet but morphologically the genus appears to be close to the Australian Nothoalsomitra (De Wilde et al. 2004) of the tribe Sicyeae (Schaefer et al. 2009).

Literature

De Wilde, W.J.J.O., Duyfjes, B.E.E. and R.W.J.M. van der Ham. 2004. Khmeriosicyos, a new monotypic genus of Cucurbitaceae from Cambodia. Blumea 49: 441-446.

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.