MACROMORPHOLOGICAL STUDY OF SOME SPECIES IN FAMILY CUCURBITACEAE

Nine genera in the family Cucurbitaceae were subjected to morphological study with a view to find additional diagnostic characters of taxonomic importance within the family. Qualitative and quantitative data were taken.Quantitative data were subjected to SPSS analysis and Duncan Multiple Range Test to show significant differences. Result of this study reveals that there are similarities in many vegetative morphological characters in the family. However, characters useful in the delimitation of the species include stem surface; mature fruit colour, where it is almost taxon-specific; seed colour; seed surface; leaf type: simple palmately lobed leaves and compound palmate leaves; tendril type: simple unbranched and branched, with the simple unbranched tendrils occurring in Cucumeropsis mannii, Cucumis sativus and Momordica charantia. Tendrils in these species are more advanced than the branched ancestral tendrils observed in the other species of the family studied. An overall trend for the transformation of flower colour from yellow to white was observed and documented. Flowers of Telfairia occidentalis are unique in having reddish-purple colour at the base, while those of Trichosanthes cucumerina are also unique in having deeply fringed or lacy petal edges. All the species of the family studied are sexually monoecious except in Telfairia occidentalis where they are dioecious, suggesting the ancestral state of sexuality in Telfairia occidentalis in comparison with the other species of the family studied.This study also documents the noteworthiness of seed morphology in the taxonomy of family Cucurbitaceae. Result generated from the quantitative data shows that the characters are quantitatively taxon-specific. An indented artificial dichotomous key was constructed to simplify the relatedness and identification of the species studied.