1. Melothria pendula L. (creeping cucumber)

Map 1630, Pl. 371 a, b

Plants monoecious perennial vines with fibrous roots and often a short, woody taproot. Stems to 4 m or more long, slender (1–2 mm in diameter), glabrous or sparsely (more densely on young growth) pubescent with short, nonsticky, spreading hairs, not strongly roughened, the tendrils usually unbranched. Leaves long-petiolate, the petiole 2–3 cm long, lacking glands at the tip, with sparse to moderate spreading hairs. Leaf blades 2–6 cm long, 2–9 cm wide, broadly ovate to nearly circular in outline, palmately shallowly to moderately (3)5-lobed with 3 major lobes and usually 2 minor lobes, the lobes broadly triangular to less commonly oblong-triangular or ovate, with sharply or occasionally bluntly pointed or rounded tips and usually broadly (more than 90°) or rarely narrowly rounded sinuses, cordate at the base, the margins otherwise sparsely toothed, the surfaces sparsely to moderately roughened with inconspicuous, short, nonsticky, pustular-based hairs. Flowers solitary (pistillate) or in small clusters (staminate) in the leaf axils, the main stalk 15–35 mm long, the clustered flowers with individual stalks 1–3 mm long. Calyx lobes 0.2–0.4 mm long. Corollas 3–5 mm wide, saucer-shaped to broadly bell-shaped, the usually 5 lobes 2–3 mm long, yellow to occasionally yellowish green. Staminate flowers with the stamens distinct. Pistillate flowers sometimes with 3 staminodes, the ovary with 3–6 ovules per placenta, the stigma 3-lobed. Fruits solitary, juicy berries, 0.7–1.2 cm long, ovoid to nearly spherical, the rind relatively thin and leathery, indehiscent, with a stalk 30–50 mm long, the surface mottled with darker and lighter green, sometimes yellowish green, becoming black with age, smooth (not spiny), glabrous, glossy. Seeds 10–14, 3–5 mm long, 2.0–3.5 mm wide, elliptic-obovate to obovate in outline, flattened, sometimes bluntly pointed at the tip, the surface smooth or finely wrinkled, white to off-white, usually shiny. 2n=24. July–October.

Uncommon in the Mississippi Lowlands Division and the southern portion of the Ozarks (southeastern U.S. west to Kansas and Texas; Mexico). Bottomland forests, mesic upland forests in ravines, banks of streams and rivers, acid seeps, and bases and ledges of bluffs; also ditches, roadsides, and disturbed areas.

Steyermark (1963) noted that the seeds have a strong purgative property. In this species, functionally perfect flowers are produced occasionally at a few nodes in place of the more typical pistillate ones.