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Cucumis maderaspatanus; photograph (c) Aravinth, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Aravinth, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-01-04

Cucumis maderaspatanus L.

Madras Pea Pumpkin; Madras pea pumpkin (Cucumis maderaspatanus)

Cucurbitaceae · Benin, Burkina +55

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Cucumis maderaspatanus, photograph (c) Harshjeet Singh Bal, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cucumis maderaspatanus, photograph (c) Harshjeet Singh Bal, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cucumis maderaspatanus, photograph (c) Harshjeet Singh Bal, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cucumis maderaspatanus, photograph (c) Harsha Jayaramaiah, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cucumis maderaspatanus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCucumis maderaspatanus, photograph (c) Aparna, some rights reserved (CC BY) 80 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
13.2°C
Record low 10.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
35°C
Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,087mm
8 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–42DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, June to September (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cucumis maderaspatanus is a species of plant in the family Cucurbitaceae. The species is found throughout the tropics and subtropics, from west Africa to Australia. One of its many synonyms is Mukia maderaspatana.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cucumis maderaspatanus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Cucumis

Cucumis is a genus of twining, tendril-bearing plants in the family Cucurbitaceae which includes the cucumber, true melons, the horned melon, and the West Indian gherkin.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cucumis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (704 mm of 1,002 mm) falls in June to September. The temperature curve is flat, 3.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,002 mm in the median year at the habitat, 704 mm of it June to September. Wettest month August at 218 mm, driest month January at 6 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 679 mm to 2,861 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,087 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,002 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 13.2 °C, the absolute minimum 10.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 12.8 °C to 23.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 34.5 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 51 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +38 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cucumis maderaspatanus through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 35 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 18.9 °C; 1,002 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°42.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER10.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 29–42RH 51–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 402 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C30 / 25–3431 / 27–3734 / 29–3935 / 29–4033 / 29–4031 / 28–3729 / 27–3429 / 26–3230 / 27–3331 / 27–3430 / 27–3629 / 25–34
Night °C19 / 13–2421 / 15–2423 / 18–2525 / 20–2725 / 21–2725 / 21–2723 / 21–2623 / 20–2623 / 20–2523 / 19–2521 / 17–2419 / 14–24
Rain mm6 / 0–1078 / 0–8517 / 1–9942 / 2–14888 / 9–235140 / 30–548180 / 56–575218 / 55–406166 / 65–307102 / 21–29127 / 1–2598 / 0–157
DLI36 / 30–3839 / 35–4142 / 35–4442 / 34–4640 / 31–4733 / 26–4129 / 24–3529 / 24–3633 / 28–3833 / 29–3932 / 27–3933 / 27–37
RH %53 / 33–6352 / 31–6351 / 34–6456 / 40–6558 / 45–6663 / 53–6964 / 56–7066 / 58–7065 / 58–6962 / 50–6856 / 39–6654 / 35–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 402 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (491 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1562:3607 (11.875, 0.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 402 distinct grid cells holding 491 of the 493 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1562:3607 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 12.00_0.625, lapse-corrected +38 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 307 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBenin, Burkina, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Madagascar, Oman, Nansei-shoto, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera · introduced: China South-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan, Solomon Is. · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker10.892, 1.496 · in the densest population, 269 records (27% of those in range)
Kew's description“climbing annual” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1006 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 491 of them in the land cells it reads, of 493 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 744 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 558 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 513 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1006 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cucumis maderaspatanus, photograph 1did not loadCucumis maderaspatanus, photograph 2did not loadCucumis maderaspatanus, photograph 3did not loadCucumis maderaspatanus, photograph 4did not loadCucumis maderaspatanus, photograph 5did not loadCucumis maderaspatanus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Harshjeet Singh Bal, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Harsha Jayaramaiah, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Aparna, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Cissus quadrangularis Cissus quadrangularis Veldt-grape Photo: CC BY, Elliot GreinerHygrophila auriculata Hygrophila auriculata Gokulakanta Photo: CC0, author not statedCenchrus setosus Cenchrus setosus West Indian pennisetum Photo: CC BY, Kevin FaccendaMucuna pruriens Mucuna pruriens Cowitch Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezCrossandra infundibuliformis Crossandra infundibuliformis Firecracker-flower Photo: CC BY, Fathima Nishana KPZiziphus oenopolia Ziziphus oenopolia Jackal jujube Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Cucumis 9 in the reference

Cucumis africanus Cucumis africanus Small Wild Cucumber Photo: CC0, author not statedCucumis anguria Cucumis anguria West Indian gherkin Photo: CC0, author not statedCucumis dipsaceus Cucumis dipsaceus Hedgehog gourd Photo: CC BY, Gabriel M. RolimCucumis melo Cucumis melo Cantaloupe Photo: CC BY, Daniel J. LaytonCucumis metuliferus Cucumis metuliferus African horned melon Photo: CC BY, Cullen HanksCucumis myriocarpus Cucumis myriocarpus Gooseberry cucumber Photo: CC BY, Em LamondCucumis prophetarum Cucumis prophetarum Wild cucumber Photo: CC BY, Mehdi ChetibiCucumis sativus Cucumis sativus Cucumber Photo: CC BY, Juan Cruzado CortésCucumis zeyheri Cucumis zeyheri South African Spiny Cucumber Photo: CC BY-SA, alanbedfordshaw

Names & registers

Also known as Bryonia cordifolia; Bryonia gracilis; Bryonia hispida; Bryonia maderaspatana; Bryonia micrantha and 13 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Trichosanthes dioica Wall. is an older name of this species, not Trichosanthes dioica, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cucurbitaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Benin, Burkina, The Gambia +54
Wild records
1006 in range · 744 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22; "Mukia maderaspatana" not shown: a scientific name Kew or this reference holds
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 21 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (15 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium, 3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 12.00_0.625, lapse-corrected +38 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 292230-1 is Kew's for Cucumis maderaspatanus L.
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 110 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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