Telfairia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A genus of tropical African climbing vines in the gourd family, best known for the fluted pumpkin grown for its edible leaves and seeds
2. Any of several West African creeping plants of the gourd family, some cultivated as vegetables for their leaves and large seeds
3. A group of vigorous tropical vines in the cucumber family whose members, such as the fluted pumpkin, are valued as food crops in Africa

Etymology: Telfairia is a genus of climbing plants in the gourd family, and it is named for Charles William Telfair, a Scottish-born botanist and colonial administrator. Telfair was living on Mauritius in the early nineteenth century, where he ran the botanic garden and wrote on the island's flora. The genus name was published in 1812 by the English botanist Joseph Hooker's predecessor in the field, the Scottish botanist Dr. John Hooker is not the source; the name was established by the botanist William Hooker's contemporaries working from Telfair's material, and it follows the common botanical practice of honouring a collector or patron with a Latinized form of his surname. The suffix "-ia" is the standard ending for plant genera named after people, so the word is simply Telfair's name with that Latin-style ending attached. The best-known species, Telfairia occidentalis, is the fluted pumpkin, a West African vegetable whose seeds and leaves are eaten widely in Nigeria and neighbouring countries. Its common English name records a different history from the genus name, since the plant was carried into botanical literature from West African cultivation rather than from Telfair's island work.