Melon can refer to either the plant or the fruit, which is a false berry. Many different cultivars have been produced, particularly of muskmelons. The plant grows as a vine.
Culinary vegetables
Genus Momordica, Bitter melon
Genus Benincasa, Winter melon
Culinary fruit
(Genus Citrullus)
(Genus Cucumis)
Horned melon ( Cucumis. metuliferus), also called melano, African horned cucumber or melon, jelly melon, hedged gourd, English tomato, or kiwano, is the vine Cucumis metulifer and is of African origin.
Musk melon (Cucumis melo) is a species of melon that has been developed into many cultivated varieties.
These include smooth skinned varietes, such as honeydew, and different netted cultivars known as cantaloupes (some of which, confusingly, may be particularly identified as "muskmelon").
It is an accessory fruit of a type that botanists call a false berry.
Cantalupensis group includes the European " cantaloupe " with skin that is rough and warty, not netted.
Chito group is the "garden melon".
Also known as the "chate" of Egypt, "mango melon", "lemon melon", "orange melon", "apple melon", or "vine peach".
Conomon group is the "oriental pickling melon"
it is also known as the "Sweet melon", " Chekiang melon", or "Chinese white cucumber".
Dudaim group is the "apple melon"
(although see Chito group above); it is also known as the "fragrant melon", "pocket melon", "Queen Anne's pocket melon", "vine pomegranate", "plum granny", and "dudaim melon".
Flexuosus group is the " Azerbaijanian cucumber" or Armenian cucumber ( Cucumis melo var. flexuosus),
also known as the “yard-long cucumber”, "snake melon", "serpent cucumber", "snake cucumber", "serpent melon", "Oriental cucumber" and uri.
It is a type of long, slender fruit which tastes like a cucumber and looks somewhat like a cucumber inside.
It is actually a variety of melon (C. melo) closest relative to the cucumber (C. sativus).
The skin is very thin, light green, and bumpless .
It has no bitterness and the fruit is almost always used without peeling.
Inodorus group includes " honeydew melon "
(aka "honeydew"), "crenshaw melon", "casaba melon" (aka "casaba"), Hami melon , Piel de Sapo , "winter melon", "American melon", "fragrant melon", or "Oriental sweet melon".
Makuwa Group is the "Japanese cantaloupe".
Reticulatus Group includes the "netted melon", "winter melon", and " North American" cantaloupe ".
Other common names are the "Nutmeg melon" and "Persian melon". "Muskmelon" is also sometimes used to refer to this type in particular.
These are the most popular melons cultivated in commerce. They are classified as Cucumis melo melo var. cantalupensis by some authors.
This group includes the recently rediscovered Montreal melon
Cantalupensis group. Skin that is rough and warty, not netted. European Cantaloup
Inodorus group.
Canary melon, Casaba, Hami melon, Honeydew, Navajo Yellow, Piel de Sapo, Santa Claus, Sugar melon
Reticulatus Group. Netted skin. Ambrosia melon , Bailan melon, North American "cantaloupe", Galia, Ogen , Persian, Sharlyn Melons
Modern hybrids. Crenshaw (Casaba X Persian), Crane (Japanese X N.A. cantaloupe)
These generally are small but powerful representatives of the Cantaloupe kind, the most prized of all being the French Charentais, which has a turquoise green skin and dense, perfumed orange flesh.
This is a thoroughly grown-up kind of melon, with a much more sophisticated flavour than the crunchy, juicy watermelon, the latter is nature's ice lolly and perfect to eat on a beach.
Honeydew melons, which are very familiar in Britain, have yellow skins, green flesh and a taste that is pleasant but not dramatic (people used to quite literally ginger them up with a sprinkling of powdered ginger).
Galia and Ogen, originate in Israel; a good Galia is almost in the same league as a Charentais