Thladiantha

Thladiantha

 

a genus of perennial herbs of the family Cucurbitaceae. The stems climb by means of simple tendrils. The roots are tuberous, and the leaves are alternate and entire. The flowers are unisexual, with a deeply cleft five-parted yellow corolla. (The plants are dioecious.) The fruit is juicy, fleshy, and many-seeded. There are about 20 species, distributed in the Himalayas and in Eastern and Southern Asia. The USSR has one species, T. dubia, which grows in the southern Far East. The plant grows wild in orchards and parks of the European USSR, where it is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental.