Taxon: Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad.

Common names:

• bitter-apple   (Source: CRC MedHerbs ) – English
  
• bitter-cucumber   (Source: BSBI ) – English
  
• colocynth   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – English
  
• vine-of-Sodom   (Source: Dict Gard ) – English
  
• wild gourd   (Source: CRC MedHerbs ) – English
  
• handhal   (Source: Ill L Qatar ) – Arabic
  
• coloquinte   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – French
  
• Bitter-Melone   (Source: Zander ed17 ) – German
  
• Koloquinte   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – German
  
• tumba   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – India
  
• colocíntida   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Portuguese
  
• alhandal   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  
• coloquíntida   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  
• kolokvint   (Source: Vara kulturvaxt namn ) – Swedish
  

More:

see MMPND for additional names in foreign scripts

Economic importance:

• Gene sources: potential for pest resistance in watermelon   (fide Genet Res Crop Evol 52:470. 2005)
  
• Medicines: folklore   (fide New Crops Food Ind 147. 1989; CRC MedHerbs ed2; Herbs Commerce ed2; Econ bot 53:102. 1999)
  
• Vertebrate poisons: mammals   (fide Use Pl WT Afr 2:571. 1985)
  
• Weed   (fide Weed CIBA)
  

More:

View toxicology references for Citrullus colocynthis from FDA Poisonous Plant Database

View phytochemical or ethnobotanical data from Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases

Distributional range:

• widely cultivated in s.w. Asia and n. Africa

References:

• Aldén, B., S. Ryman & M. Hjertson. 2009. Våra kulturväxters namn - ursprung och användning. Formas, Stockholm (Handbook on Swedish cultivated and utility plants, their names and origin).
• Botanical Society of the British Isles. BSBI taxon database (on-line resource).
• CIBA-GEIGY, Basel, Switzerland. Documenta CIBA-GEIGY (Grass weeds 1. 1980, 2. 1981; Monocot weeds 3. 1982; Dicot weeds 1. 1988)
• Dane, F. & P. Lang. 2004. Sequence variation at cpDNA regions of watermelon and related wild species: implications for the evolution of Citrullus haplotypes. Amer. J. Bot. 91:1922–1929.
• Decker-Walters, D. S. 1999. Cucurbit, Sanskrit, and the Indo-Aryas. Econ. Bot. 53:102.
• Duke, J. A. et al. 2002. CRC Handbook of medicinal herbs.
• Duke, J. A. 1985. CRC Handbook of medicinal herbs.
• Erhardt, W. et al. 2002. Zander: Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen, 17. Auflage.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2010. Ecocrop (on-line resource).
• Huxley, A., ed. 1992. The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening.
• Kirkbride, J. H., Jr. 1993. Biosystematic monograph of the genus Cucumis (Cucurbitaceae). [mentions].
• Levi, A. et al. 2001. Genetic diversity among watermelon (Citrullus lanatus and Citrullus colocynthis) accessions. Genet. Resources Crop Evol. 48:559–566.
• Levi, A. et al. 2002. A genetic linkage map for watermelon derived from a testcross population: (Citrullus lanatus var. citroides × C. lanatus var. lanatus. Theor. Appl. Genet. 105:555–563.
• Levi, A. et al. 2005. Analysis based on RAPD and ISSR markers reveals closer similarities among Citrullus and Cucumis species than with Praecitrullus fistulosus (Stocks) Pangalo. Genet. Resources Crop Evol. 52:465–472.
• McGuffin, M., J. T. Kartesz, A. Y. Leung, & A. O. Tucker. 2000. Herbs of commerce, ed. 2.
• Navot, N. et al. 1990. Linkage relationships of genes affecting bitterness and flesh color in watermelon. J. Heredity 81:162–165. [this study examined plants derived from crosses between a cultivar of Citrullus lanatus × C. colocynthis and parents, and selfed pollinated plants derived from crosses between C. colocynthis × C. ecirrhosus].
• Nesom, G. L. 2011. New state records for Citrullus, Cucumis, and Cucurbita (Cucurbitaceae) outside of cultivation in the USA. Phytoneuron 2011–1:1–7. [naturalized in California].
• Norton, J. et al. 2009. Illustrated checklist of the flora of Qatar.
• Parsons, W. T. & E. G. Cuthbertson. 1992. Noxious weeds of Australia.
• Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) (on-line resource).
• Rehm, S. 1994. Multilingual dictionary of agronomic plants.
• Sain, R. S. et al. 2002. Cytogenetic analysis of interspecific hybrids in genus Citrullus (Cucurbitaceae). Euphytica 128:205–210.
• Wickens, G. E. et al., eds. 1989. New crops for food and industry.

More:

Search AGRICOLA article citation database for citations referencing Citrullus colocynthis.

Search NCBI's Entrez search engine for PubMed citations referencing Citrullus colocynthis.

Search Biodiversity Heritage Library for historical publications referencing Citrullus colocynthis.

Synonyms:

• (=) Colocynthis vulgaris Schrad.
  
• (≡) Cucumis colocynthis L. (basionym)
  

Check other web resources for Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad.:

• Mansfeld: Mansfeld's World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops
• ePIC: Electronic Plant Information Centre of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AGRICOLA: Article Citation Database or NAL Catalog of USDA's National Agricultural Library
• Entrez: NCBI's search engine for PubMed citations, GenBank sequences, etc.

Images:

• GRIN Images of germplasm accessions.
• Seed: U.S. National Seed Herbarium image

More:

• Check PlantSystematics.org for additional images
• Images Note: Be advised that their identity may be inaccurate. Proper identification of a plant may require specialized taxonomic knowledge or comparison with properly documented herbarium material.

Abbreviations & symbols in GRIN Taxonomy

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