Watermelon

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Watermelon
Watermelon fruit
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, Family Cucurbitaceae) is the fruit and plant of a vine-like (climber and trailer) herb originally from southern Africa. This flowering plant bears an accessory fruit of a type that botanists call a false berry. The watermelon fruit, loosely considered a type of melon (although not in the genus Cucumis), has a smooth exterior rind (green and yellow) and a juicy, sweet, usually red interior flesh. The species descriptor Citrullus vulgaris is sometimes, synonymously, used to refer to this plant (vulgaris meaning "common" — Shosteck, 1974).

History

David Livingstone, an explorer of Africa, described watermelon as abundant in the Kalahari Desert, where it is believed to have originated. There, the ancestral melon grows wild and is known as the Tsamma melon (Citrullus lanatus var citroides). It is recognizable by its pinnatifid leaves and prolific fruit, up to 100 melons on a single vine. For this reason it is a popular source of water in the diet of the indigenous people, as well as a food for humans and livestock. The flesh is similar to the rind of a watermelon and is often known as citron melon (distinct from the actual citron, of the citrus family); it is used for making pickles, and because of its high content of pectin is popular as a constituent of jams, jellies, and other gelled preserves. It has established itself in the wild in Baja California.

Watermelon slices

It is not known when the plant was first cultivated, but the earliest watermelon harvest of record occurred in dynastic Egypt nearly 5,000 years ago, and is depicted in hieroglyphs. The fruit was often placed in the tombs of pharaohs as sustenance in the afterlife. In fact, in Egyptian myth, watermelons originated from the semen of Set.

By the 10th century A.D., watermelon was 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 & Drink, "watermelon" made its first appearance in an English dictionary in 1615.

Museums 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, Ph.D., 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 early watermelon sightings include the Midwestern states (1673), Connecticut (1747), and the Illiana region (1822).

Until the 1940s, however, it was hard to find watermelons in good condition at grocery stores. Melon lovers had to grow their own, which tended not to keep for long, purchase them from local grocers supplied by truck farmers, or purchase them from roadside produce stands.

Then 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 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. Today, farmers in approximately 44 states in the U.S. grow watermelon commercially, and almost all these varieties have some Charleston Gray in their lineage. Georgia (Cordele, Ga. is the watermelon capital of the world), Florida, Texas, California and Arizona are the nation's largest watermelon producers.

small seedless watermelon
Watermelon with yellow flesh

This now-common watermelon is large enough that groceries often sell half or quarter melons. There are also some smaller, spherical varieties of watermelon, both red- and yellow-fleshed, sometimes called "icebox melons."

Culture

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).

Flower stems of male and female watermelon blossoms, showing ovary (incipient fruit if pollinated) on the female

Although so-called "seedless" watermelons have far fewer seeds than the seeded varieties, they generally contain at least a few soft, pale seeds. They are the product of crossing a female tetraploid plant (itself the product of genetic manipulation, using colchicine) with diploid pollen. The resulting triploid plant is sterile, but will produce the seedless fruit if pollenized by a diploid plant. For this reason, commercially available seedless watermelon seeds actually contain two varieties of seeds; that of the triploid seedless plant itself (recognizable because the seed is larger), and the diploid plant which is needed to pollenize the triploid. Unless both plant types are grown in the same vicinity, no seedless fruit will result. This system for growing seedless watermelons was first developed by Dr. Kihara in Japan and subsequently improved by Dr. O J Eigsti in partnership with Dr. Kihara. This scientific relationship was begun at the Third International Genetics Congress, held in Stockholm, Sweden in 1948. Their collaboration lasted for over 20 years until Dr. Kihara died in the early seventies. Dr. Eigsti developed a tetraploid hybrid in the 1950's which became the gold standard for all seedless watermelons developed since then. In 1986, Dr. Eigsti's company was reorganized and a joint venture (American Sunmelon) was entered into with SunWorld International and in the ensuing eleven years seedless watermelon became a staple in supermarkets around the world. In 1998, Dr. Eigsti's tetraploid hybrid along with all of the assets of American Sunmelon were sold to Syngenta, the seed producing arm of Novartis A.G.

In Japan, farmers of the Zentsuji region found a way to grow cubic watermelons, by growing the fruits in glass boxes and letting them naturally assume the shape of the receptacle. (BBC) The square shape supposedly makes the melons easier to stack and store, but the square watermelons are often more than double the price of normal ones.

  • A group of watermelon leaves
    A group of watermelon leaves
  • A closeup of a watermelon leaf
    A closeup of a watermelon leaf

Watermelon as food and drink

Fresh watermelon may be eaten in a variety of ways and is also often used to flavor summer drinks and smoothies.

The simplest way to cut a watermelon is to slice it crossways and then to slice the resulting round slabs into halves or quarters (pictured above). This method is generally used in a casual setting where people do not mind the juices flowing everywhere. Since the rind provides a handle, no utensils are needed.

If the watermelon is to be eaten in conjunction with a meal, it is generally cut into bite-sized squares or balled with a melon baller. The resulting pieces are often mixed with other melons and fruits and possibly a syrup to form a fruit salad.

Watermelon rinds are also edible, and sometimes used as a vegetable. In China, they are stir-fried, stewed, or more often pickled. When stir-fried, the de-skinned and de-fruited rind is cooked with olive oil, garlic, chili peppers, scallions, sugar and rum (and provides a great way to utilize the whole watermelon). Pickled watermelon rind is also widespread in Russia.

Watermelon seeds are rich in fat and protein, and are widely eaten as a snack, added to other dishes, or used as an oilseed. Specialized varieties are grown which have little watery flesh but concentrate their energy into seed production. In China watermelon seeds are one of the most common snack foods, popular especially with women, competing with sunflower seeds, and sold roasted and seasoned. In West Africa, they are pressed for oil, and are popular in egusi soup and other dishes. There can be some confusion between seed-specialized watermelon varieties and the colocynth, a closely-related species with which they share many characteristics, uses, and similar or identical names.

Watermelon is 92 percent water by weight, the highest percentage of any fruit. In the United States and South Africa, one may also find an alcoholic novelty known as a hard watermelon, or a watermelon that has been enhanced with an alcoholic beverage. This process involves boring a hole into the watermelon, then pouring the liquor inside and allowing it to mix with the flesh of the fruit. The watermelon is then cut and served as normal.

Watermelon as symbol

The watermelon slice is striking and unmistakable in appearance. Art related to the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead — October 31–November 2) commonly depicts watermelons being eaten by the dead or shown in close conjunction with the dead. This theme appears regularly on ceramics and in other art from the holiday. Watermelons are a frequent subject in Mexican still life art.

The image of a watermelon slice being eaten and general references to watermelons sometimes historically have been used derogatorily. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, African Americans often were depicted in racist caricatures as being inordinately fond of watermelon.

Southerners of any race frequently have been lampooned for the fruit's popularity in the South over the years; however, some of the folk humor about Southerners has been gentle self-parody, as seen in the annual watermelon seed-spitting contests at Southern festivals like Georgia's "Redneck Olympics."

Additionally, the word "watermelon" has been used since the late 20th century as a term describing left-wing Green party members, referring to them as "green on the outside, red on the inside" (red being the color commonly associated with socialism.)

References

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Watermelon.
Look up watermelon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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