Plant with unripe melons. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, ACT

Ripe melons. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Melons on dry stems. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Common Name

Paddy Melon; Gooseberry Cucumber

Family

Cucurbitaceae

Notes

Introduced annual forb or climber, prostrate or to 2m tall.  Leaves alternating along the stems, with lobes at the base, 2-7.5cm long, 20-80mm wide, flat, the edges lobed, the lobes further lobed to toothed, almost hairless on the top surface, bristly below.  Male and female flowers on the same plant.  Flowers yellow, with 5 petals, single or in clusters at the bases of the leaves.  Male flowers in clusters of 2-4, female flowers single or in pairs.  Ripe fruit yellow, bitter, probably poisonous.  Cucumis myriocarpus ssp. leptodermis in NSW.

Description and photo in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 625

PlantNET description (as Cucumis myriocarpus ssp. leptodermis):  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=in&name=Cucumis~myriocarpus+subsp.~leptodermis