Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Vine

General: Perennial from large tuberous root, stems essentially glabrous, slender, striate; tendrils small, slender, simple or bifid, glabrous.

Leaves: Thin, glabrous or nearly so below, somewhat scabrous above with scattered orbicular trichomes, blades 3-8 cm long, 3-7 lobes, lobes triangular-ovate to lanceolate, acute, broadly emarginate, on petioles 1-4 cm long, striate, glabrous.

Flowers: Staminate flowers in simple or compound racemes; corolla white, spreading, 6-10 mm broad, sparsely pubescent outside, minutely stipitate-glandular within; stamens 3, deeply flexed; ovary glandular-pubescent, densely echinate, broader than long, solitary, beak short.

Fruits: Pepo 2-3 cm long and broad, 2-4 celled, 2-4 seeded, somewhat succulent when green, becoming dry, dehiscing irregularly, densely echinate, globose.

Ecology: Found in canyons and in hillside thickets, especially along streams below 5,000 ft (1524 m); flowers February-April.

Notes: The shoots of this plant are known to grow very early in the season. Easy to distinguish from other plants when its is in fruit, the heavily spined pepo is very obvious.

Ethnobotany: Unknown, other species in the genera have a variety of uses.

Etymology: Marah is thought to be a reference to the bitter roots, in reference to its being named in the Bible, while gilensis means of or from Gila, a reference to the Gila River in Arizona.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010