Scopellaria W.J. de Wilde & Duyfjes
Scopellaria W.J. de Wilde & Duyfjes, Blumea 51: 297. 2006.
Type: Scopellaria marginata (Blume) W.J. de Wilde & Duyfjes; basionym: Bryonia marginata Blume, C.L. Blume 920 (L), Indonesia, Java.

Annual, biennial or perennial climbers or trailers with up to 6 m long herbaceous shoots and monoecious sex system. The leaves are simple, with ovate, angular, or 3-5-lobed blade. The tendrils are simple, hairy throughout their length. The flowers are small to medium-sized, to 1 cm across. The receptacle-tube is campanulate with five minute, linear sepals. The five petals are free, ovate-elliptic, yellow, aestivation imbricate. The male flowers are produced in short, pedunculate, crowded racemes, female flowers solitary (or pairs), coaxillary with male racemes. The three stamens are inserted near the mouth of the tube on free, long, slender filaments. The anthers are all bithecous with lateral, straight thecae containing tricolporate, irregularly striate-reticulate, small pollen (polar axis c. 40 µm, equatorial axis c. 47 µm, (van der Ham & Pruesapan 2006)). The ovary is globose to ellipsoid. The stigma is trilobed, hairy. The fruit is a smooth berry, solitary (or in pairs) on long pedicel, juicy or pulpy, globose or ellipsoid to fusiform, to 3 cm long, ripening red. The 1-40 seeds are up to 6 mm long, compressed, ovate-elliptic with scorbiculate, pale testa, with distinct margin.

Two species in thickets, along forest margins and roadsides in Southeast Asia, from Southern China to Indonesia and the Philippines.

Scopellaria is placed in tribe Benincaseae, probably close to Papuasicyos but its exact position is still unclear (Schaefer & Renner 2011).

Literature

De Wilde, W.J.J.O. and B.E.E. Duyfjes. 2006. Redefinition of Zehneria and four new related genera (Cucurbitaceae), with an enumeration of the Australasian and Pacific species. Blumea 51: 1-88.

De Wilde, W.J.J.O. and B.E.E. Duyfjes. 2006. Scopellaria, a new genus name in Cucurbitaceae. Blumea 51: 297-298.

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

Schaefer, H. and S.S. Renner. 2011. Phylogenetic relationships in the order Cucurbitales and a new classification of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae). Taxon 60: 122-138.

Van der Ham, R.W.J.M., Pruesapan, K. 2006. Pollen morphology of Zehneria s. l. (Cucurbitaceae). Grana 45: 241-248.