Skip to main content

Muskmelon (Cucumis melo)

Melon or muskmelon (Cucumis melo) is a plant species, annual, spreading or propagating using a spiral-shaped holder, all or some parts have hair or no hair, has two subspecies with many varieties and cultivars, many are cultivated for fruit and seed harvest.

C. melo has a primary root 15-20 cm long from the base of the stem, while secondary and tertiary roots spread to 35-45 cm long. The stem is green, in the shape of a pentagon with hairs, segmented for the petiole and has 3-7 curves.

Dlium Muskmelon (Cucumis melo)


Green leaves, arranged alternately, five corners, 3-5 curves, 8-15 cm in diameter, some bones running as long stems, rough-haired surface. Muskmelon grows in how to climb using a twisting device that appears on each leaf armpit.

Flowers grow on the armpits of leaves with long flat stems and only consist of a flower crown and five stamens. Male flowers are formed in groups with 3-6 items. Female flowers appear on the branching segments in the first or second armpit of the leaf consisting of a crown, pistil and oval shaped ovaries with short, thick fruit stalks.

Female flowers will fall out if for 2-3 days are not pollinated. Fruit is round or oval or elongated. The skin has a thickness of 1-2 mm and is green or yellow or red or white. The epidermis layer is generally netted or prickly or hairy or smooth. The mesodermic layer is 1 mm thick.

Fruit flesh that is light green or yellow or orange. Among the cavities has a set of seeds wrapped in a placenta that is white, slimy, brown or white, 0.9 mm long, 0.4 mm in diameter and 500-600 seeds in each fruit.



Melons are widely cultivated and produce great diversity in fruit characteristics among cultivars. Sizes vary from 100g, 100-400g, 400g-1000g, 1-5 kg and 4-10 kg. Flat, ellipsoid, obovoid, round and very long. Skin color, contents, sweetness, acids, aromatic compounds and climacteric behavior also show high variability.

Muskmelon has two subspecies, Cucumis melo spp. melo with long-haired ovaries and Cucumis melo ssp. agrestis with short hair. Some cultivars include cantaloupe, galia, honeydew, Western shippers, Piel de Sapo and Christmas.

This plant has several varieties including chinensis, makuwa, momordica, conomon, acidulus, chate, flexuosus, tibish, adana, ameri, cantalupensis, chandalak, reticulatus, inodorus and widower.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Cucurbitales
Family: Cucurbitaceae
Genus: Cucumis
Species: Cucumis melo
Subspecies: Cucumis melo spp. melo, Cucumis melo ssp. agrestis
Varieties: Chinensis, makuwa, momordica, conomon, acidulus, chate, flexuosus, tibish, adana, ameri, cantalupensis, chandalak, reticulatus, inodorus and widower

Popular Posts

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) manufacture bubble-nets as tools to increase prey intake

NEWS - Humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) create bubble net tools while foraging, consisting of internal tangential rings, and actively control the number of rings, their size, depth and horizontal spacing between the surrounding bubbles. These structural elements of the net increase prey intake sevenfold. Researchers have known that humpback whales create “bubble nets” for hunting, but the new report shows that the animals also manipulate them in a variety of ways to maximize catches. The behavior places humpbacks among the rare animals that make and use their own tools. “Many animals use tools to help them find food, but very few actually make or modify these tools themselves,” said Lars Bejder, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP), University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Humpback whales in southeast Alaska create elaborate bubble nets to catch krill. They skillfully blow bubbles in patterns that form a web with internal rings. They actively control details such ...

Jomblang Cave

Jomblang Cave or Luweng Jomblang is a 50-meter vertical collapse doline type cave in Gunung Kidul Regency, Yogyakarta Province, Indonesia. This cave was formed due to geological processes in which soil and vegetation on the surface collapsed to the bottom of the earth into a sinkhole thousands of years ago into ancient forests in the cave. Inside the cave grows endemic vegetation and a place for conservation of ancient plants. Sunlight bursts into 90 meters of Luweng Grubug to form a light pole, illuminating the beautiful flowstone and water dripping from a height in a dark room. Characteristics Jomblang Cave is one of the caves of hundreds of caves in the Gunung Sewu Geopark . This doline collapse cave is formed due to the surface process collapsing and forming a sinkhole. Ancient plants that lived on the surface also fell to the bottom of the earth, adapted and continued to grow until now as a very rare endemic plant. This cave has a mouth hole 50 meters wide and 60 meters ...

Artocarpus altilis var. altilis and Artocarpus altilis var. camansi, the differences

SPECIES HEAD TO HEAD - Genus Artocarpus J.R.Forst. & G.Forst. has more than 70 recorded species of which breadfruit ( Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg) and breadnut ( Artocarpus camansi Blanco) grow in tropical areas, both species are medium to large trees and have many similarities. Some researchers doubt both nomenclatures. I agree that both species should be one species. A. altilis is the domesticated version and widely cultivated in its history, while A. camansi is the original or wild version and has never undergone domestication in history. Both species have overall similarities including the shape and size of habitus, stem, leaves, flowers and fruit. The only differences are in the skin of the fruit and the size of the seeds as an impact of human cultural selection. A. altilis has fruit with a pericarp in the form of small and short thorns, while the number of seeds is small and small in size. A. camansi has fruit with a pericarp in the form of larger and long...