56 Susanne S. Renner & Arun K. Pandey / PhytoKeys 20: 53–118 (2013) ten are endemic: Cucumis indicus (Kerala, Maharashtra), C. ritchiei (Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu), C. setosus (Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan), C. silentvalleyi (Kerala), Momordica sahyadrica (Kerala), Solena amplexicaulis (Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala), Trichosanthes anaimalaiensis (Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Tripura), Trichosanthes khasiana, Zehneria hookeriana (Tamil Nadu), and Z. maysorensis (Kerala). Clearly, Kerala is the state with the highest number <strong>of</strong> endemics, followed by Tamil Nadu. <strong>The</strong> most species-rich <strong>Cucurbitaceae</strong> genera in <strong>India</strong> are Trichosanthes with 22 species, Cucumis with 11 (all but two wild), Momordica 8, and Zehneria with 5. While 86 native species, including just ten endemics, may not be large numbers, <strong>India</strong> harbors an exceptional range <strong>of</strong> tribes as seen in Fig. 1, which shows the placement <strong>of</strong> the native <strong>India</strong>n genera on a <strong>Cucurbitaceae</strong> family tree with the family’s current tribal classification (Schaefer and Renner, 2011b). Many <strong>of</strong> the <strong>India</strong>n species, such as Actinostemma, Gynostemma, Hemsleya, Ind<strong>of</strong>evillea, Momordica and Siraitia belong to old and phylogenetically isolated lineages. This is known because 79% <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Cucurbitaceae</strong> species occurring in <strong>India</strong> have been sequenced for one or more genetic markers. Cucumber and melon, which originate in <strong>India</strong>, both have had their genomes completely sequenced (Huang et al., 2009; García-Mas et al., 2012), and many have been included in family-wide phylogenetic analyses (Kocyan et al., 2007; Schaefer et al., 2009; Schaefer and Renner, 2011b). <strong>The</strong> currently 20 species without any DNA sequences in GenBank may be found by searching our checklist for “no published sequences available.” Floristic distribution within <strong>India</strong> and disjunctions between Africa and <strong>India</strong> <strong>The</strong> highest number <strong>of</strong> species is known from the northeast and peninsular <strong>India</strong> (Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh), the lowest from the Jammu Kashmir and Himachal regions <strong>of</strong> Western Himalaya. Especially interesting from a phytogeographic standpoint are species ranging from Africa to <strong>India</strong>, such as Coccinia grandis, Blastania cerasiformis, Corallocarpus conocarpus, C. epigaeus, C. schimperi, Cucumis prophetarum, Dactyliandra welwitschii, Luffa echinata, Momordica cymbalaria, and Zehneria thwaitesii. <strong>The</strong> genera Diplocyclos and Kedrostis also both have species in East Africa and <strong>India</strong>, but apparently not individual species spanning both continents. <strong>The</strong>se disjunctions would be interesting to study with molecular methods, which might allow inferring arrival times in <strong>India</strong>. Conclusion One <strong>of</strong> the great technical advances <strong>of</strong> recent years that are positively affecting taxonomy is the easy exchange <strong>of</strong> photos. Even simple snap shots <strong>of</strong> living plants (and cer-
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Cucurbitaceae</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>India</strong> 57 Figure 1. Tribal classification <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Cucurbitaceae</strong> with native <strong>India</strong>n genera highlighted in red, cultivated ones in blue. Modified from Schaefer and Renner (2011a, b). tainly type images) greatly facilitate deciding the identity <strong>of</strong> a particular plant, and we hope that our links to the eflora<strong>of</strong>india (https://sites.google.com/site/eflora<strong>of</strong>india/) will pro<strong>of</strong> useful. <strong>The</strong> greatest caveat concerning our checklist is that the geographic