Tropical Plant "Melancia-do-campo"
Melancium campestre

Characteristics - The Melancium campestre is a fruit bearer not under cultivation, but commonly found in its natural habitat, the savannas (cerrados) all over the country. It is an herbaceous perennial, monoecious, with prostrate branches, sarmentose, and hirsutepubescent. Leaves are simple, irregularly tri or tetralobed, pubescent 5-6 cm long. Flowers are unisexual, axillary, the female flowers with few flowers. They form during the period from September to November. Fruits are globose, berry-type, with a succulent, slightly sweet flavored pulp; they ripen in the summer. The seeds are minutely hispid, with all the hairs arranged in the same direction, when eating the pulp, with seeds present, they tend to slide, uncontrollably towards the throat.

Uses - The fruits are consumed only in their natural state or in the form of juices.

Propagation - Propagated by seeds.