Watermelon

For other uses, see Watermelon (disambiguation).

Watermelon
Watermelon
Watermelon cross section
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Cucurbitales
Family: Cucurbitaceae
Genus: Citrullus
Species: C. lanatus
Variety: lanatus
Trinomial name
Citrullus lanatus var. lanatus
(Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai
Watermelon output in 2005

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus var. lanatus, family Cucurbitaceae) is a vine-like (scrambler and trailer) flowering plant originally from southern Africa. It is a large, sprawling annual plant with coarse, hairy pinnately-lobed leaves and white to yellow flowers. It is grown 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 fruit has a smooth hard rind—usually green with dark green stripes or yellow spots—and a sweet, juicy interior flesh—usually deep red to pink, but sometimes orange, yellow, or white—with many seeds, which can be soft and white or hard and black.

Considerable breeding effort has been put into disease-resistant varieties and into developing a "seedless" strain with only digestable white seeds. Many cultivars are available, producing mature fruit within 100 days of planting the crop. The fruit can be eaten raw, pickled or the rind cooked.

History

The watermelon is 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[1] considered the watermelon to be indigenous to tropical Africa.[2] 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.[3]

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.[4]

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. Moorish invaders introduced the fruit into Europe 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.[5]

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.[5]

Description

Watermelon slices

The watermelon is an 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 stemmed and alternate, large and pinnately-lobed; they get stiff and rough when old. The plant has branching tendrils. The 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).[6] 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.[5][7]

Variety improvement

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

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.[8] 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.[5] 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.[5]

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".[9] The largest recorded fruit was grown in Tennessee in 2013 and weighed 159 kilograms (351 pounds).[10]

Cultivation

Top five watermelon producers (2012, in tonnes)
 China 70,000,000
 Turkey 4,044,184
 Iran 3,800,000
 Brazil 2,079,547
 Egypt 1,874,710
 World total 95,211,432
Source: UN FAOSTAT [11]

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.

Aphids, fruit flies and root-knot nematodes attack this crop and if humidity levels are high the plants are prone to plant diseases such as powdery mildew and mosaic virus.[12] In Japan and other parts of the Far East, varieties are often grown that are susceptible to fusarium wilt, and these may be grafted onto disease-resistant rootstocks.[5]

Seedless watermelon

For commercial plantings, one beehive per acre (4,000 m2 per hive) is the minimum recommendation by the US Department of Agriculture for pollination of conventional, seeded varieties. Because seedless hybrids have sterile pollen, pollinizer rows of varieties with viable pollen must also be planted. 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, or 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.[13]

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.[14] The cubic shape was originally designed to make the melons easier to stack and store, but the cubic watermelons are often more than double the price of normal ones; much of their appeal to consumers is in their novelty. These shaped watermelon are often harvested before optimal ripeness; because they are bitter instead of sweet, the shaped fruits are considered ornamental and not edible. Pyramid-shaped watermelons have also been developed and any polyhedral shape may potentially also be used.[15]

Varieties

The more than 1200[16] 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.[13]

Watermelon with yellow flesh
'Moon and stars' watermelon cultivar

Uses

Nutrients

Watermelon, raw
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 127 kJ (30 kcal)
7.55 g
Sugars 6.2 g
Dietary fiber 0.4 g
0.15 g
0.61 g
Vitamins
Vitamin A equiv.
(4%)

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

Percentages are roughly approximated using US recommendations for adults.
Source: USDA Nutrient Database

In a 100 gram serving, watermelon fruit supplies 30 calories and low amounts of essential nutrients (table). Only vitamin C is present in appreciable content at 10% of the Daily Value (table).

Watermelon fruit is 91% water, contains 6% sugars, and is low in fat (table).[27]

Food

Watermelon rinds are also edible, but most people avoid eating them due to their unappealing flavor. They are used for making pickles,[26] sometimes eaten in the Southern US, and less often as a vegetable,[7] where the rind is stir-fried or stewed.[28][29]

The amino acid citrulline is produced in watermelon rind.[30][31] Watermelon pulp contains carotenoids, including lycopene.[32]

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.[33]

The seeds have a nutty flavor and can be dried and roasted, or ground into flour.[7] In China, the seeds are esteemed and eaten with other seeds at Chinese New Year celebrations.[34] In Vietnamese culture, watermelon seeds are consumed during the Vietnamese New Year's holiday, Tết, as a snack.[35]

Watermelon juice can be made into wine or blended with other fruit juices.[36] An alcoholic creation called a "hard watermelon" is made by pouring liquor into a hole in the rind of a whole fruit, and then eating the alcohol-permeated flesh.[28]

C. l. lanatus var caffer grows wild in the Kalahari Desert, where it is known as tsamma.[7] The fruits are used by the San people and by animals for both water and nourishment. Traditionally, travelling in the desert in the dry season could only be done in a good tsamma year. Humans can survive on an exclusive diet of tsamma for six weeks.[7]

Watermelon and other fruit in Boris Kustodiev's Merchant's Wife

References

  1. Candolle, Origin of Cultivated Plants (1882) pp 262ff, s.v. "Water-melon".
  2. Wehner, Todd C. Watermelon Crop Information. North Carolina State University
  3. Dane, Fenny; Liu, Jiarong (2006). "Diversity and origin of cultivated and citron type watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)". Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. 54 (6): 1255. doi:10.1007/s10722-006-9107-3.
  4. Zohary, Daniel and Hopf, Maria (2000) Domestication of Plants in the Old World, third edition, Oxford University Press, p. 193, ISBN 0-19-850357-1.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Maynard, David; Maynard, Donald N. (2012). "6: Cucumbers, melons and watermelons". In Kiple, Kenneth F.; Ornelas, Kriemhild Coneè. The Cambridge World History of Food, Part 2. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521402156. ISBN 978-0-521-40215-6.
  6. "A Systematic Treatment of Fruit Types". Worldbotanical.com. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai". South Africa National Biodiversity Institute. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  8. "Watermelon developer dies at 101". Post and Courier, 16 July 2007
  9. "Good reasons for icebox melons". The Free Library. Sunset. 1 May 1985. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  10. 1 2 "Heaviest watermelon". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
  11. "Statistics from: Food And Agricultural Organization of United Nations: Economic And Social Department: The Statistical Division". UN Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database.
  12. Brickell, Christopher (ed) (1992). The Royal Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening (Print). London: Dorling Kindersley. p. 333. ISBN 978-0-86318-979-1.
  13. 1 2 "Watermelon Variety Descriptions". Washington State University. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  14. Square fruit stuns Japanese shoppers. BBC News, 15 June 2001.
  15. "Square watermelons Japan. English version". YouTube. 6 November 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  16. "Vegetable Research & Extension Center – Icebox Watermelons". Retrieved 2 August 2008.
  17. "Watermelon growing contest". Georgia 4H. The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. 2005. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  18. "Golden Midget Watermelon". Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  19. "Orangeglo Watermelon". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 23 April 2007.
  20. "Moon and Stars Watermelon Heirloom". rareseeds.com. Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 15 July 2008.
  21. Evans, Lynette (15 July 2005). "Moon & Stars watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) — Seed-spittin' melons makin' a comeback". The San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 13 October 2007. Retrieved 6 July 2007.
  22. "Moon and Stars Watermelon". Archived from the original on 2 June 2007. Retrieved 23 April 2007.
  23. "Watermelon, Cream Saskatchewan". seedsavers.org. Archived from the original on 21 February 2009.
  24. "Melitopolski Watermelon". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 23 April 2007.
  25. Hosaka, Tomoko A. (6 June 2008). "Black Japanese watermelon sold at record price". The Associated Pres. Archived from the original on 9 June 2008. Retrieved 10 June 2008.
  26. 1 2 Todd C. Wehner (2008). "12. Watermelon". In Jaime Prohens and Fernando Nuez. Handbook of plant breeding. Volume 1, Vegetables. I, Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Chenopodicaceae, and Cucurbitaceae. Springer. pp. 381–418. doi:10.1007/978-0-387-30443-4_12#page-1 (inactive 2016-01-19).
  27. "Watermelon, raw". Nutritional data. Self. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
  28. 1 2 Anthony F. Chiffolo; Rayner W. Hesse (2006). Cooking with the Bible: Biblical Food, Feasts, and Lore. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 278. ISBN 978-0-313-33410-8.
  29. Bryant Terry (2009). Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine. Da Capo Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-7867-4503-6.
  30. Rimando AM, Perkins-Veazie PM (2005). "Determination of citrulline in watermelon rind". J Chromatogr A. 1078 (1–2): 196–200. doi:10.1016/j.chroma.2005.05.009. PMID 16007998.
  31. The Associated Press (3 July 2008). "CBC News – Health – Watermelon the real passion fruit?". CBC. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  32. Perkins-Veazie P, Collins JK, Davis AR, Roberts W (2006). "Carotenoid content of 50 watermelon cultivars". J Agric Food Chem. 54 (7): 2593–7. doi:10.1021/jf052066p. PMID 16569049.
  33. "Oklahoma Declares Watermelon Its State Vegetable". CBS4denver. 18 April 2007. Archived from the original on 2 March 2008. Retrieved 3 October 2009.
  34. Shiu-ying Hu (2005). Food Plants of China. Chinese University Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-962-996-229-6.
  35. The Asian Texans By Marilyn Dell Brady, Texas A&M University Press
  36. Keller, Jack (2002). "Watermelon Wines". Winemaking Home Page. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
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