Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Threat only at high elevations?  no

Other Latin names:  Cucumia sepium G. Mey.

Habit:  vine

Description: 

Genus:  "Climbing or trailing, annual, monoecious herbs.  Leaves simple, palmately lobed, with a few disk glands on the lower surface; tendrils 2-6-fid.  Staminate inflorescences racemose, pistillate flowers solitary, co-axillary with the staminate inflorescences.  Staminate flowers with hypanthium shortly campanulate; sepals large, enclosing petals in bud; petals 5, yellow, free; stamens 5 (all monothecous) or 3 (1 monothecous, 2 dithecous), inserted on hypanthium, free; connectives broad; thecae much convoluted.  Pistillate flowers solitary, co-axillary with staminate; perianth similar to that of staminate flower; ovary smooth, ribbed, tuberculate or spiny; ovules numerous, horizontal; stigmas 3.  Fruits globose to cylindrical capsules, rostrate, smooth, ribbed, or spiny, dry brownish, with fibrous interior, dehiscent by an apical operculum.  Seeds oblong-elliptic in outline, compressed" (Berry et al., 1998).

Key to species:
"Luffa sepium:  Petals 0.5-1.6 cm long; ovary tuberculate-aculeate; fruit 4-12 cm long, aculeate or tuberculate; seeds 7-7.5 mm long, pale.
Luffa aegyptiaca:  Petals 2.5-5.3 cm long; ovary not tuberculate-aculeate; fruit less than 15 cm long, smooth; seeds 8.5-12 mm long, black.

"Climbing herbaceous vine" (Berry et al., 1998; pp. 454-455).

Habitat/ecology:  In Venezuela, "disturbed areas, 100-200 m" (Berry et al., 1998; pp. 454-455).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Guayana, Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil (Berry et al., 1998; pp. 454-455).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) Floreana Group	Floreana Island	probably introduced invasive	Charles Darwin Research Station (2005)

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Colombia Colombia	Colombia (Republic of)	native	Steyermark, Julian A./Berry, Paul E./Yatskievych, Kay/Holst, Bruce (1995) (pp. 4:454-455)
Ecuador (Mainland) Ecuador	Ecuador (Republic of) (continental)	native	Steyermark, Julian A./Berry, Paul E./Yatskievych, Kay/Holst, Bruce (1995) (pp. 4:454-455)
Panama Panama	Panama (Republic of)	native	Steyermark, Julian A./Berry, Paul E./Yatskievych, Kay/Holst, Bruce (1995) (pp. 4:454-455)
Perú Perú	Perú (Republic of)	native	Steyermark, Julian A./Berry, Paul E./Yatskievych, Kay/Holst, Bruce (1995) (pp. 4:454-455)

Comments:  Probably not native to the Galápagos Islands, possibly introduced, per Charles Darwin Research Station.

Additional information:  Additional online information about Luffa sepium is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Taxonomic information about Luffa sepium may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Berry, Paul E./Holst, Bruce K./ Yatskievych, Kay. 1998. Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana, vol. 4: Caesalpinianceae-Ericaceae. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis. .

Charles Darwin Research Station. 2005. CDRS Herbarium records.

Steyermark, Julian A./Berry, Paul E./Yatskievych, Kay/Holst, Bruce. 1995. Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana. Miss. Bot. Gar. Press. 1995-2003, 7 vols. to date.