Zehneria is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

s – of vine

Vine

A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...

s in the cucumber and gourd family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Cucurbitaceae

Cucurbitaceae

The plant family Cucurbitaceae consists of various squashes, melons, and gourds, including crops such as cucumber, pumpkins, luffas, and watermelons...

. It contains about 35 species ranging from Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, through Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

 to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and Oceania

Oceania

Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...

. The name honours botanical artist

Botanical illustrator

A botanical illustrator is a person who paints, sketches or otherwise illustrates botanical subjects such as trees and flowers. The job requires great artistic skill, attention to fine detail, and technical botanical knowledge...

 Joseph Zehner.

Description

Zehneria species are either monoecious or dioecious

Dioecious

Dioecy is the property of a group of biological organisms that have males and females, but not members that have organs of both sexes at the same time. I.e., those whose individual members can usually produce only one type of gamete; each individual organism is thus distinctly female or male...

, annual or perennial, climbing vine

Vine

A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...

s. Their leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are simple, dentate and usually palmately lobed. Inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

s grow on axillary raceme

Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

s, with the flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s normally clustered, occasionally solitary. The fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 is fleshy, usually globose or ellipsoidal, and indehiscent

Dehiscence

Dehiscence can refer to:*Dehiscence is the spontaneous opening at maturity of a plant structure, such as a fruit, anther, or sporangium, to release its contents.*Wound dehiscence is a previously closed wound reopening....

. The seeds are obovate, compressed and smooth.

Selected species

• Zehneria alba
  Zehneria alba
  Zehneria alba is a species of flowering plant in the cucumber and gourd family Cucurbitaceae. It is endemic to Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the north-eastern Indian Ocean. The specific epithet is from the Latin albus , referring to the colour of the flowers.-Description:Zehneria...
  
  Ridl.
• Zehneria baueriana
  Zehneria baueriana
  Zehneria baueriana, commonly known as the Native Cucumber or Giant Cucumber, is a species of flowering plant – a vine in the cucumber and gourd family Cucurbitaceae. It is found on Norfolk Island, an Australian territory in the Tasman Sea, as well as in New Caledonia...
  
  Endl.
• Zehneria bodinieri (H. Lév.) W. J. de Wilde & Duyfjes
• Zehneria brevirostris W. J. de Wilde & Duyfjes
• Zehneria cunninghamii F.Muell.
• Zehneria ejecta F. M. Bailey
• Zehneria hermaphrodita W. J. de Wilde & Duyfjes
• Zehneria indica (Lour.) Keraudren
• Zehneria japonica (Thunb.) H. Y. Liu
• Zehneria marginata (Blume) Keraudren
• Zehneria marlothii (Cogn.) R. Fern. & A. Fern.
• Zehneria maysorensis Wight. & Arn.
• Zehneria microsperma Hook. f.
• Zehneria minutiflora (Cogn.) C. Jeffrey
• Zehneria mucronata (Blume) Miq.
• Zehneria repanda (Blume) Simmons
• Zehneria scabra (L.f.) Sond.
• Zehneria scabrella F. Muell.
• Zehneria sphaerosperma W. J. de Wilde & Duyfjes
• Zehneria tenuispica W. J. de Wilde & Duyfjes
• Zehneria thwaitesii (Schweinf.) C. Jeffrey
• Zehneria wallichii (C. B. Clarke) C. Jeffrey