Origin, distribution and systematics of culinary cucumber (Cucumis melo subsp. agrestis var. conomon)

Summary

The non-dessert or culinary forms of C. melo are a distinct group distributed and adapted well essentially under humid tropics of Southern India. Culinary cucumber or vegetable cucumber (Cucumis melo subsp. agrestis var. conomon) belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae, genus Cucumis, species melo, subspecies agrestis and variety conomon. In English, it is popularly called as Mangaluru cucumber, Oriental pickling melon, Japanese pickling melon, golden melon, culinary melon, Indian yellow cucumber, yellow cucumber, lemon cucumber, and so on. Although much of the information about culinary cucumber calls them cucumbers they are not cucumbers! They are actually a part of the so called “conomon” group of melons (Cucumis melo). Traditionally the conomon melons have been used in the Far East for pic