Entry Detail


watermelon


Entry Type:  
Species
Scientific Name:  
Common Name:  
watermelon
Myaamia Name:  
iihkhtaminki
Harvest Seasons:  
Fall, Spring
Habitats:  
Human-Disturbed Areas

Media 
Media not available.
Myaamia Archival Sources  
Reference Source Reference Type Archival Data Comments
Gatschet, A.S. 1904 Use - Food

"iktamíngi - watermelon", literally meaning "raw food eaten without cooking".

Pease, T. C. and R. C. Werner 1934 Use - Food

"They harvest also a great many watermelons which are admirable. I have seen numbers of them as big as water buckets (Elles recueillent aussi quantite de melons d'eau qui sont admirables j'en ay vu quantite d'aussi gros qu'un seau)".

Thwaites, R.G. (ed.) 1903 Use - Food

"They greatly esteem their citruls, though they are none of the best. They dry them up, and keep them till the Winter and Spring".

Thwaites, R.G. (ed.) 1903 Use - Food

"They have abundance of water-melons, citruls, and gourds".

Thwaites, R.G. (ed.) 1966 Use - Food

Watermelons were given to Marquette and Joliet's party to eat. "We ate no other fruit there than watermelons" ("nous n'y avons pas mange de fruictz que des melons d'eau)".

Pease, T. C. and R. C. Werner 1934 Use - Medicinal

Seeds used for medicine. "Their medicines they use for purging have all the effectiveness possible. There are some who use coloquinte, with which the wilderness abounds in autumn when they gather their seeds." ("Celles don’t ils se servent pour purger font tout l'effet possible. Il y a qui se servent de Coloquinte don’t les deserts sont pleins L'automne, quand ils ont cueillis leurs grains").

Kenton, E. 1925 Use - Food

Watermelon was given to the missionaries to eat.

Kellogg, L.P. 1923 Use - Food

Watermelons were cultivated.

Kellogg, L.P. 1923 Use - Food

Watermelons, along with sunflowers and gourds are first sprouted in a hot-bed and then transplanted into crop fields.

Gatschet, A.S. ca. 1895 Use - Food

In the traditional story of Young Thunder William Pecongah, he describes the crops, including C. vulgaris, growing on his land 160 acres of reserve in central Indiana. "There I planted corn, wheat, potatoes, peas, tobacco, beans, apple trees, pumpkins, watermelons, cucumbers, onions, hay, straw, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, turnips, tomatoes, pawpaws, cherries, strawberries, plums, blackhaws, peaches, walnut trees, pecans, hickory nuts, barley and rye."

Dunn, J.P. ca. 1900 Use - Food

Watermelon is eaten raw.

Botanical Sources  
Reference Source Reference Type Data Comments
Hickman. J.C. 1993 Habitat 

This species is also known as C. colocynthis, hence coloquinte. C. vulgaris is a native to Africa cultivated throughout eastern and western Myaamia lands.

Related Sources  
Reference Source Reference Type Data Comments
Anonymous 1837  

Watermelon is mentioned in this work.

Steyermark, J.A. 1963  

There is no listing of Citrullus in Gleason and Cronquist 1991 nor in Deam 1940, but Steyermark lists this species as C. vulgaris and Small 1903 as C. citrullus.