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The family Cucurbitaceae, which is not closely related to any other plant family, consists of two well-defined subfamilies, eight tribes (representing varying degrees of circumscriptive cohesiveness) and about 118 genera and 825 species (Jeffrey, 1990). The four major cucurbit crops (watermelon, cucumber, melon, squash) and five other important crops (luffa, bottle gourd, chayote, wax gourd, bitter gourd) in the family belong to the Cucurbitoideae subfamily. Four of these – watermelon, luffa, bottle gourd and wax gourd – belong to the tribe Benincaseae. The classification of these and other cultivated species is given in Table 1.1. Many more wild taxa have actual or potential economic value, making Cucurbitaceae one of the most important plant families for human exploitation.

Table 1.1. Taxonomy of cultivated cucurbit species.

Taxonomic studies of cucurbits at all hierarchical levels have been done. They include comparative analyses of morphology (including specialized studies on trichomes, stomata, palynology and seed coat anatomy), cytology, DNA, isozymes, flavonoids, cucurbitacins, amino acids and fatty acids in seeds, biogeography and coevolving insects. A monograph has been written on Cucumis (Kirkbride, 1993), and the taxonomic relationships within the Cucurbitaceae are being improved using molecular markers (Schaefer et al., 2009; Chomicki and Renner, 2014). These new studies have been useful to the areas of crop improvement and germplasm conservation.