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 edible fruit, also known as a watermelon, which is a special kind of berry botanically called a pepo. The fruit has a smooth hard rind, usually green with dark green stripes or yellow spots, and a juicy, sweet interior flesh, usually deep red to pink, but sometimes orange, yellow, or white, with many seeds.
Considerable breeding effort has been put into disease-resistant varieties and into developing a seedless strain. Many cultivars are available, producing mature fruit within 100 days of planting the crop. The fruit can be eaten raw or cooked.
Watermelon rinds are also edible, but most people avoid eating them due to their unappealing flavor. They are used for making pickles,[26] and sometimes used as a vegetable.[7] The rind is stir-fried, stewed or more often pickled,[28] which is sometimes eaten in the Southern US.[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 treat 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]
Watermelon and other fruit in Boris Kustodiev’s Merchant’s Wife
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]
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