Watermelon

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For other uses, see Watermelon (disambiguation).

It has been suggested that this article be merged with Citrullus lanatus.
(Discuss) Proposed since January 2018.

Watermelon

Watermelon

Watermelon cross section

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Plantae
 (unranked): Angiosperms

(unranked): Eudicots

(unranked): Rosids

Order: Cucurbitales

Family: Cucurbitaceae

Genus: Citrullus

Species: C. lanatus

Binomial name

Citrullus lanatus
(Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai

Watermelon output in 2005

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is a scrambling and trailing vine in the flowering

plant family Cucurbitaceae. The species originated in southern Africa, with evidence of its
cultivation in Ancient Egypt. It is grown in tropical and subtropical areas worldwide for its large
edible fruit, also known as a watermelon, which is a special kind of berry with a hard rind and no
internal division, botanically called a pepo. The sweet, juicy flesh is usually deep red to pink, with
many black seeds, although seedless varieties have been cultivated. The fruit can be eaten raw
or pickled and the rind is edible after cooking.
Considerable breeding effort has been put into disease-resistant varieties. Many cultivars are
available that produce mature fruit within 100 days of planting the crop.

Contents
[hide]

 1Description
 2History
 3Cultivation
 o 3.1Varieties
o 3.2Variety improvement
 4Production
 5Food and beverage
o 5.1Nutrients
 6Gallery
 7References
 8External links

Description

Watermelon slices

The watermelon is a large annual plant with long, weak, trailing or climbing stems which are five-
angled (five-sided) and up to 3 m (10 ft) long. Young growth is densely woolly with yellowish-
brown hairs which disappear as the plant ages. The leaves are large, coarse, hairy pinnately-
lobed and alternate; they get stiff and rough when old. The plant has branching tendrils. The
white to yellow flowers grow singly in the leaf axils and the corolla is white or yellow inside and
greenish-yellow on the outside. The flowers are unisexual, with male and female flowers
occurring on the same plant (monoecious). The male flowers predominate at the beginning of the
season; the female flowers, which develop later, have inferior ovaries. The styles are united into
a single column. The large fruit is a kind of modified berry called a pepo with a
thick rind (exocarp) and fleshy center (mesocarp and endocarp).[1] Wild plants have fruits up to
20 cm (8 in) in diameter, while cultivated varieties may exceed 60 cm (24 in). The rind of the fruit
is mid- to dark green and usually mottled or striped, and the flesh, containing
numerous pips spread throughout the inside, can be red or pink (most commonly), orange,
yellow, green or white.[2][3]

History
The watermelon is a flowering plant thought to have originated in southern Africa, where it is
found growing wild. It reaches maximum genetic diversity there, with sweet, bland and bitter
forms. In the 19th century, Alphonse de Candolle[4] considered the watermelon to be indigenous
to tropical Africa.[5] Citrullus colocynthis is often considered to be a wild ancestor of the
watermelon and is now found native in north and west Africa. However, it has been suggested on
the basis of chloroplast DNA investigations that the cultivated and wild watermelon diverged
independently from a common ancestor, possibly C. ecirrhosus from Namibia.[6]
Evidence of its cultivation in the Nile Valley has been found from the second millennium
BC onward. Watermelon seeds have been found at Twelfth Dynasty sites and in the tomb
of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.[7]
In the 7th century, watermelons were being cultivated in India, and by the 10th century had
reached China, which is today the world's single largest watermelon producer.
The Moors introduced the fruit into Spain and there is evidence of it being cultivated
in Córdoba in 961 and also in Seville in 1158. It spread northwards through southern Europe,
perhaps limited in its advance by summer temperatures being insufficient for good yields. The
fruit had begun appearing in European herbals by 1600, and was widely planted in Europe in the
17th century as a minor garden crop.[2]
European colonists and slaves from Africa introduced the watermelon to the New World. Spanish
settlers were growing it in Florida in 1576, and it was being grown in Massachusetts by 1629,
and by 1650 was being cultivated in Peru, Brazil and Panama, as well as in many British and
Dutch colonies. Around the same time, Native Americans were cultivating the crop in the
Mississippi valley and Florida. Watermelons were rapidly accepted in Hawaii and other Pacific
islands when they were introduced there by explorers such as Captain James Cook.[2]
Seedless watermelons were initially developed in 1939 by Japanese scientists who were able to
create seedless triploid hybrids which remained rare initially because they did not have
sufficient disease resistance.[8] Seedless watermelons became more popular in the 21st century,
rising to nearly 85% of total watermelon sales in the United States in 2014.[9]

Cultivation
Watermelons are tropical or subtropical plants and need temperatures higher than about 25 °C
(77 °F) to thrive. On a garden scale, seeds are usually sown in pots under cover and
transplanted into well-drained sandy loam with a pH between 5.5 and 7, and medium levels of
nitrogen.
Major pests of the watermelon include aphids, fruit flies and root-knot nematodes. In conditions
of high humidity, the plants are prone to plant diseases such as powdery mildew and mosaic
virus.[10] Some varieties often grown in Japan and other parts of the Far East are susceptible
to fusarium wilt. Grafting such varieties onto disease-resistant rootstocks offers protection.[2]

Seedless watermelon

The US Department of Agriculture recommends using at least one beehive per acre
(4,000 m2 per hive) for pollination of conventional, seeded varieties for commercial plantings.
Seedless hybrids have sterile pollen. This requires planting pollinizer rows of varieties with viable
pollen. Since the supply of viable pollen is reduced and pollination is much more critical in
producing the seedless variety, the recommended number of hives per acre (pollinator density)
increases to three hives per acre (1,300 m2 per hive). Watermelons have a longer growing period
than other melons, and can often take 85 days or more from the time of transplanting for the fruit
to mature.[11]
Farmers of the Zentsuji region of Japan found a way to grow cubic watermelons by growing the
fruits in metal and glass boxes and making them assume the shape of the receptacle.[12] The
cubic shape was originally designed to make the melons easier to stack and store, but cubic
watermelons may be triple the price of normal ones, so appeal mainly to wealthy urban
consumers.[12] Pyramid-shaped watermelons have also been developed and
any polyhedral shape may potentially be used.[13]
Varieties
The more than 1200[14] cultivars of watermelon range in weight from less than 1 kg to more than
90 kilograms (200 lb); the flesh can be red, pink, orange, yellow or white.[11]

 The 'Carolina Cross' produced the current world record for heaviest watermelon, weighing
159 kilograms (351 pounds).[15] It has green skin, red flesh and commonly produces fruit
between 29 and 68 kilograms (65 and 150 lb). It takes about 90 days from planting to
harvest.[16]
 The 'Golden Midget' has a golden rind and pink flesh when ripe, and takes 70 days from
planting to harvest.[17]
 The 'Orangeglo' has a very sweet orange flesh, and is a large, oblong fruit weighing 9–14 kg
(20–31 lb). It has a light green rind with jagged dark green stripes. It takes about 90–100
days from planting to harvest.[18]
 The 'Moon and Stars' variety was created in 1926.[19] The rind is purple/black and has many
small yellow circles (stars) and one or two large yellow circles (moon). The melon weighs 9–
23 kg (20–51 lb).[20] The flesh is pink or red and has brown seeds. The foliage is also spotted.
The time from planting to harvest is about 90 days.[21]
 The 'Cream of Saskatchewan' has small, round fruits about 25 cm (9.8 in) in diameter. It has
a thin, light and dark green striped rind, and sweet white flesh with black seeds. It can grow
well in cool climates. It was originally brought to Saskatchewan, Canada, by Russian
immigrants. The melon takes 80–85 days from planting to harvest.[22]
 The 'Melitopolski' has small, round fruits roughly 28–30 cm (11–12 in) in diameter. It is an
early ripening variety that originated from the Astrakhan region of Russia, an area known for
cultivation of watermelons. The Melitopolski watermelons are seen piled high by vendors
in Moscow in the summer. This variety takes around 95 days from planting to harvest.[23]
 The 'Densuke' watermelon has round fruit up to 11 kg (24 lb). The rind is black with no
stripes or spots. It is grown only on the island of Hokkaido, Japan, where up to 10,000
watermelons are produced every year. In June 2008, one of the first harvested watermelons
was sold at an auction for 650,000 yen (US$6,300), making it the most expensive
watermelon ever sold. The average selling price is generally around 25,000 yen ($250).[24]

 Many cultivars are no longer grown commercially because of their thick rind, but seeds may
be available among home gardeners and specialty seed companies. This thick rind is
desirable for making watermelon pickles, and some old cultivars favoured for this purpose
include 'Tom Watson', 'Georgia Rattlesnake', and 'Black Diamond'.[25]

Watermelon (an old cultivar) as depicted in a 17th-century painting, oil on canvas, by Giovanni Stanchi

Variety improvement
Charles Fredric Andrus, a horticulturist at the USDA Vegetable Breeding Laboratory
in Charleston, South Carolina, set out to produce a disease-resistant and wilt-resistant
watermelon. The result, in 1954, was "that gray melon from Charleston". Its oblong shape and
hard rind made it easy to stack and ship. Its adaptability meant it could be grown over a wide
geographical area. It produced high yields and was resistant to the most serious watermelon
diseases: anthracnose and fusarium wilt.[26]
Others were also working on disease-resistant varieties; J. M. Crall at the University of Florida
produced "Jubilee" in 1963 and C. V. Hall of Kansas State University produced "Crimson sweet"
the following year. These are no longer grown to any great extent, but their lineage has been
further developed into hybrid varieties with higher yields, better flesh quality and attractive
appearance.[2] Another objective of plant breeders has been the elimination of the seeds which
occur scattered throughout the flesh. This has been achieved through the use of triploid varieties,
but these are sterile, and the cost of producing the seed by crossing a tetraploid parent with a
normal diploid parent is high.[2]
Today, farmers in approximately 44 states in the United States grow watermelon commercially.
Georgia, Florida, Texas, California and Arizona are the United States' largest watermelon
producers. This now-common fruit is often large enough that groceries often sell half or quarter
melons. Some smaller, spherical varieties of watermelon—both red- and yellow-fleshed—are
sometimes called "icebox melons".[27] The largest recorded fruit was grown in Tennessee in 2013
and weighed 159 kilograms (351 pounds).[15]

Major watermelon producers, 2014 (millions of

tonnes)[28]

China 74.8

Turkey 3.9

Iran 3.6

Brazil 2.2

Egypt 2.0

World 111.0

Production
In 2014, global production of watermelons was 111 million tonnes, with China alone accounting
for 67% of the total.[28] Secondary producers each with less than 4% of world production included
Turkey, Iran, Brazil and Egypt.[28]

Food and beverage

Watermelon flesh, raw

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)

Energy 127 kJ (30 kcal)

Carbohydrates 7.55 g
 Sugars 6.2 g

Dietary fiber 0.4 g

Fat 0.15 g

Protein 0.61 g

Vitamins

Vitamin A equiv. (4%)

beta-Carotene 28 μg

(3%)

303 μg

Thiamine (B1) (3%)

0.033 mg

Riboflavin (B2) (2%)

0.021 mg

Niacin (B3) (1%)

0.178 mg

Pantothenic acid (B5) (4%)

0.221 mg

Vitamin B6 (3%)

0.045 mg

Choline (1%)

4.1 mg

Vitamin C (10%)
 8.1 mg

Minerals

Calcium (1%)

7 mg

Iron (2%)

0.24 mg

Magnesium (3%)

10 mg

Manganese (2%)

0.038 mg

Phosphorus (2%)

11 mg

Potassium (2%)

112 mg

Sodium (0%)

1 mg

Zinc (1%)

0.1 mg

Other constituents

Water 91.45 g

Lycopene 4532 µg

Link to USDA Database entry

  Units
 μg = micrograms • mg = milligrams
 IU = International units

Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for

adults.

Source: USDA Nutrient Database

Watermelons are a sweet, popular fruit of summer, usually consumed fresh in slices, diced in
mixed fruit salads, or as juice.[29][30]Watermelon juice can be blended with other fruit juices or
made into wine.[31]
The seeds have a nutty flavor and can be dried and roasted, or ground into flour.[3] In China, the
seeds are eaten at Chinese New Yearcelebrations.[32] In Vietnamese culture, watermelon seeds
are consumed during the Vietnamese New Year's holiday, Tết, as a snack.[33]
Watermelon rinds may be eaten, but most people avoid eating them due to their unappealing
flavor. They are used for making pickles,[25] sometimes eaten as a vegetable, stir-
fried or stewed.[3][34]
The Oklahoma State Senate passed a bill in 2007 declaring watermelon as the official state
vegetable, with some controversy about whether it is a vegetable or a fruit.[35]
Citrullis lanatus, variety caffer, grows wild in the Kalahari Desert, where it is known
as tsamma.[3] The fruits are used by the San peopleand wild animals for both water and
nourishment, allowing survival on a diet of tsamma for six weeks.[3]
In Southern Russia, they are sometimes preserved by fermenting them together with sauerkraut,
much like the apples.[citation needed]
Nutrients