Creeping-cucumber

Melothria pendula, commonly known as the creeping cucumber or Guadeloupe cucumber, is a slender herbaceous climbing vine of the family Cucurbitaceae native to the southeastern United States, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America. It produces thin, branched, weakly angular stems that scramble or climb to 2–4 m by means of simple, unbranched tendrils arising opposite the leaves. The alternate leaves are palmately three- to five-lobed, 3–8 cm across, with shallowly toothed margins, a rough-pubescent texture, and a deeply cordate base. The plant is monoecious, with small yellow bell-shaped flowers about 5–7 mm across; staminate flowers are clustered in small racemes, while pistillate flowers are solitary on long, slender pedicels. The fruit is a smooth, ellipsoid berry 1.5–2.5 cm long that ripens from green with pale flecks to deep purplish-black, resembling a tiny watermelon and giving the genus its colloquial name. The species grows in moist thickets, forest edges, fence rows, and disturbed open ground.