Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Cucurbitales
Family: Cucurbitaceae
Genus: Citrullus
Species: C. lanatus
Binomial name
Citrullus lanatus
(Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai
Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum & Nakai, family
Cucurbitaceae) refers to both fruit and plant of a vine-like
(scrambler and trailer) herb originally from southern Africa and
one of the most common types of melon. This flowering plant
produces a special type of fruit known by botanists as a pepo, a
berry, which has a thick rind (exocarp) and fleshy center (mesocarp
and endocarp); pepos are derived from an inferior ovary and are
characteristic of the Cucurbitaceae. The watermelon fruit, loosely
considered a type of melon (although not in the genus Cucumis), has
a smooth exterior rind (green, yellow, and sometimes white) and a
juicy, sweet interior flesh (usually pink, but sometimes orange,
yellow, red, and sometimes green if not ripe).
Watermelon is thought to have originated in southern
Africa, where it is found growing wild, because it reaches maximum
genetic diversity resulting in sweet, bland and bitter forms there.
Alphonse de Candolle, in 1882, already considered the evidence
sufficient to prove that watermelon was indigenous to tropical
Africa. Though Citrullus colocynthis is often considered to be a
wild ancestor of watermelon, and is now found native in north and
west Africa, Fenny Dane and Jiarong Liu,[3] suggest on the basis of
chloroplast DNA investigations, that the cultivated and wild
watermelon appear to have diverged independently from a common
ancestor, possibly C. ecirrhosus from Namibia.
It is not known when the plant was first cultivated, but Zohary and
Hopf note evidence of its cultivation in the Nile Valley from at
least as early as the second millennium BC. Although watermelon is
not depicted in any Egyptian hieroglyphic text nor does any ancient
writer mention it, finds of the characteristically large seed are
reported in Twelfth dynasty sites; numerous watermelon seeds were
recovered from the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. It wasn't present
in any other culture of the ancient Mediterranean.
A close-up of a watermelon leafBy the 10th century AD, watermelons
were being cultivated in China, which is today the world's single
largest watermelon producer. By the 13th century, Moorish invaders
had introduced the fruit to Europe; and, according to John
Mariani's The Dictionary of American Food and Drink, "watermelon"
made its first appearance in an English dictionary in 1615.
In Vietnam, legend holds that watermelon was discovered in Vietnam
long before it reached China, in the era of the Hng Kings.
According to legend, watermelon was discovered by Prince Mai An
Tim, an adopted son of the 11th Hng King. When he was exiled
unjustly to an island, he was told that if he could survive for six
months, he would be allowed to return. When he prayed for guidance,
a bird flew past and dropped a seed. He cultivated the seed and
called its fruit "da ty" or western melon, because the birds who
ate it flew from the west. When the Chinese took over Vietnam in
about 110 BC, they called the melons "da ho" (good melon) or "da
hu", "da Ty", "da ho", "da hu"—all words for "watermelon". An Tim's
island is now a peninsula in the suburban district of Nga Sn.
Watermelons on display by a roadside vendor in Delhi, IndiaMuseums
Online South Africa list watermelons as having been introduced to
North American Indians in the 1500s. Early French explorers found
Native Americans cultivating the fruit in the Mississippi Valley.
Many sources list the watermelon as being introduced in
Massachusetts as early as 1629. Southern food historian John
Egerton has said he believes African slaves helped introduce the
watermelon to the United States. Texas Agricultural Extension
horticulturalist Jerry Parsons lists African slaves and European
colonists as having distributed watermelons to many areas of the
world. Parsons also mentions the crop being farmed by Native
Americans in Florida (by 1664) and the Colorado River area (by
1799). Other ea
