Coccinia grandis

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Common Name: ivy gourd

Family: Curcurbitaceae

Common Synonyms: none

USDA Hardiness Zone: 9b-11

Growth Habit: Vine

Origin: Africa and Asia

FISC Category: -

FDACS Listed Noxious Weed: No

Introduction Date: Earliest Florida specimen vouchered in 1908

IFAS Assessment:

  • North: OK
  • Central: OK
  • South: OK
NA
Forest and Kim Starr, Starr Environmental, Bugwood.org

Description

Perennial herbaceous vine to 2.7 m long. Stems annually produced from a tuber, glabrous with simple tendrils. Leaves alternate and simple, ovate, 5-lobed 5-9 cm, glabrous. Flowers white, 5-petaled, 3-4.5 cm long. Fruit a smooth, red berry, 2.5-6 cm long.

Habitat

Hammocks

Comments

Occurs in Lee Co in residential areas. Grown for use in Asian cuisine and medicine

Map of species distribution

Control Methods

  • Manual: NA
  • Chemical: Knock back foliage of infestation with trichlopyr amine or dicamba and follow up with basal bark treatment on regrowth with trichlopyr ester (ISSG).
  • Biological: NA

Control Notes

NA

References

Dave's Garden. 2014. PlantFiles: Ivy Gourd, Coccinia grandis. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/32030/. Accessed on June 20, 2014.

ISSG. 2005. Global Invasive Species Database: Coccinia grandis. http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=348. Accessed on June 24, 2014.

University of Georgia - Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health. 2013. BugwoodWiki: Coccinia grandis. http://wiki.bugwood.org/Coccinia_grandis. Accessed on June 24, 2014.