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Bryonia cretica dioica

(Cretan Bryony)

Overview

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Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Cretan Bryony

Description

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Family Cucurbitaceae

The Cucurbitaceae are mostly prostrate or climbing herbaceous annuals comprising about 90 genera and 700 species that are further characterized by commonly having 5-angled stems and coiled tendrils . The leaves are alternate and usually palmately 5-lobed or divided ; stipules are absent. The flowers are actinomorphic and nearly always unisexual . The perianth has a short to prolonged epigynous zone that bears a calyx of 3-6 segments or lobes and 3-6 petals or more frequently a 3-6-lobed sympetalous corolla. The androecium is highly variable, consisting of basically 5 distinct to completely connate stamens that frequently are twisted, folded or reduced in number. The gynoecium consists of a single compound pistil of 2-5 carpels, generally with one style and as many style branches or major stigma lobes as carpels, and an inferior ovary with one locule and usually numerous ovules on 2-5 parietal placentae or 3 locules with numerous ovules on axile placentae. The fruit is a type of berry called a pepo . -- Gerald Carr.

Genus Bryonia

Climbing herbs with perennial roots . Dioecious, rarely monoecious. Tendrils simple . Leaves 3-5-angled or palmately 3-5-lobed; petiolate . Flowers small, white or yellow, male flowers racemose or fasciculate; calyx tube broadly campanulate , segments oblong . Stamens 3, rarely 5, filaments free , short; anthers free or slightly coherent, broadly oblong, one 1-locular, the others 2-locular, loculi linear , curved , somewhat sigmoid , pistillode absent; female flowers corymbose or racemose, calyx and corolla as in the male, staminodes 3-5; ovary ovoid , style slender, 3-fid at the top, inserted on an annular disc; stigmas 3, 2-lobed, ovules numerous , horizontal, placentas 3. Fruit baccate , spherical , indehiscent, several to few-seeded. Seeds ovoid or oblong with thickened corrugated margin .

A genus of c. 12 species, distributed in Europe, Asia, North Africa & Canary Islands.[1]

Physical Description

Habit: Vine , Forb/herb

Flowers: Bloom Period: June. • Flower Color: pale green

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 6-8' tall.

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 1,160 meters (0 to 3,806 feet).[2]

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Growth

Culture: Space 12-15" apart.

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Partial to Full Shade.

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

Bryonia Cretica Dioica • Bryonia cretica L. dioica (Jacquin) Tutin

Notes

Name status: Accepted name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000.

Publishing author : Jacq. Publication : Fl. Austr. ii. 59. t. 199 (err. typ. disica).

An accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database.

Place of publication: Feddes Repert. 79:61. 1968

Name verified on 31-Jul-2002 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 11-Feb-2007

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Bryonia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 6 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

B. alba (White Bryony) · B. aspera (Turkish Bryony) · B. cretica (Cret Bryony) · B. cretica dioica (Cretan Bryony) · B. dioica dioica (Cretan Bryony) · B. verrucosa (Venenillo)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. "Bryonia". in Flora of Pakistan Page 21. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Mean = 172.070 meters (564.534 feet), Standard Deviation = 149.170 based on 5,484 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/15/2012