Cyclanthera

a genus of plants of the family Cucurbitaceae. The plants are perennial or annual herbs with creeping tendril-bearing stems. The leaves are entire, lobed, or palmate. The small unisexual flowers are yellow, greenish, or white. The staminate flowers are in axillary racemes, and the pistillate flowers are solitary. There are 15 species (according to other data, as many as 40), distributed in tropical America. The most well-known species is C. pedata, which is native to Peru and is cultivated as a culinary plant in some regions of South America. It has lobed leaves and oval blue-green fruit. The fruit and young shoots are used for food. C. pedata and some other species are cultivated as ornamentals to decorate buildings, balconies, park pavilions, and other structures.