Watermelon (Citrullus Lanatus) スイカ（西瓜）

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Honestly, I don't feel like taking a morning walk these days because it's so hot that I can't expect to find any plants for this blog. But I still go out for a walk because almost every day something unexpected happens like this morning I've found these MINI watermelons🍉!!

You can see how MINI by comparing them with a JPY100 coin, 22.6mm in diameter. They're mini but ripe, i.e., having stripes! I also found a leftover watermelon (2nd photo) of a bird or a mouse(?). The 4th photo shows a watermelon still in the process of growing. It's not round in the beginning.   

A mini watermelon　ミニスイカ

A leftover　食べかけスイカ

Female Watermelon Flowers and Common Straight Swift スイカ（西瓜）と一文字セセリ

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

I'm very happy I was wrong😆. Today, I found a couple of female flowers and baby watermelons🍉!! A few days ago, I found watermelon flowers but at that time only the male ones. I had hope however that I might be able to see the female ones, so kept observing them and voila!! This morning, I found a few female flowers plus a common straight swift (Parnara guttata) on one of them 𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯 (3rd photo)!

As you see, the watermelon is dioecious, i.e., male and female flowers growing on a single plant (2nd photo). And unlike bitter gourds, which are also in the gourd family as watermelons are, it's very difficult to tell the male from the female only based on their appearances without looking at the back of the flowers where a fruit grows. Bitter gourd female flowers have yellow green centers (whereas a watermelon has a yellow center; see the 4th photo). From today on, I'll keep watching the growth of these baby watermelons!!! 

A watermelon female flower　スイカの雌花

A female (left) and a male flowers　雌花（左）と雄花

A common straight swift on a male flower　雄花の上に一文字セセリ到来

A female watermelon flower　スイカの雌花は花芯が黄色

Watermelon (Citrullus Lanatus) スイカ（西瓜）

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

I knew immediately that the plant was in the gourd family but didn't know what it was. I did research and learned according to the pinnately lobed leaves (3rd photo) that it was watermelon (Citrullus lanatus). Watermelons fruit about one month after flowering. I quickly went through all the pictures I took but found no female flowers😂.

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)　スイカ（西瓜）

Pinnately lobed leaves　ギザギザの葉

Real and Netsuke Watermelon スイカ - 本物と根付

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Do you know what this yellow flower is?

What do you think this flower is? 何の花でしょう？

The answer is in the photo below.

It's watermelon! スイカの花！

I didn't know what it was when taking these pictures, just thinking that it must have been a member of the cucumber family. I realized at home that this was watermelon when finding a so small and so hairy baby watermelon!!

I haven't had watermelon this summer yet, and if you haven't yet either, look at the watermelon below I saw at Tokyo National Museum this February. It's a watermelon netsuke with makie lacquer painting, created by Kinuyo Hariya, a Japanese netsuke carver and makie painter.

 

3cm tall netsuke watermelon

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写真を撮っているときは何の花か分からず、ただ「毛深い花だな」と思ってました。でも家で写真をよく見たら、何とちっちゃいスイカが！！

そういえば最近めっきりスイカを食べなくなりました。というわけで以前、東京国立博物館で見た、本物そっくりのスイカの蒔絵根付をご覧ください。根付作家かつ蒔絵作家である針谷絹代氏の作品です。

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Watermelon Netsuke Carving With Makie Lacquer Painting スイカの蒔絵根付

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

This looks so fresh and sweet, does't it?

It's 3cm high "Watermelon" carved and "makie"-painted by Japanese netsuke carver and lacquer painter Kinuyo Hariya from boxwood. The "makie" painting technique, i.e., sprinkling or spraying wet lacquer with metallic powder, usually gold or silver, from a dusting tube, hair-tipped paint brush, etc., makes the color of this watermelon skin so real....
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica

3cm high netuske carving watermelon 「すいか」針谷絹代作