How to Identify Watermelons

Identifying water melon plants is easy to do.

Watermelon fruit conjures up images of sunny summer days and childhood. Most people can identify the fruit once it has ripened and been picked. But identifying the plant in the wild, before it's picked, is another challenge. By looking for distinct colors and leaf shapes, determining if that unknown plant in your backyard is watermelon is possible, when armed with some key traits to look for. With any luck you have a source for fresh watermelon in the future.

Instructions

Identifying the Plant

1. Examine the stems of the plant that you suspect is watermelon. Look for hairy stems that coil on the ground across the soil or spread to nearby shrubbery. See if the plant has grown to approximately 20 to 30 feet in length and examine it further for small, thin bits of plan stem coming out of the plant tips.

2. Examine the leaf and foliage that are coming out of the plant. Look for leaves that are light green and have relatively complex lobes.

3. Ensure that the leaves have a hairy surface with approximately three to five lobes across the edges. These lobes on the leafs are the key differentiating factor used to identify a watermelon plant over other types of plants. Even when the watermelon plant is immature and hasn't yet started to grow fruit it is apparent.

4. Examine the plant for for small fruits that have a smooth skin. Look for a solid, uniform green color on the fruits to ensure that they are immature watermelon fruits. Look for striping and green blotches as the fruit begins to mature and ripen for picking.

Identifying the Fruit

1. Ensure that the fruit is sized approximately nine to 16 inches in length and has a distinct oval shape.

2. Check the fruit skin for a green color with stripes of light green and blotches of darker green.

3. Press down on the surface of the watermelon to see how ripe it is. If the surface feels too firm, it's probably not yet ripe. If it is slightly mushy, but still retains a firmness when pressure on the surface is released, it's likely ripe enough to consume.

References

• Learn 2 Grow: Citrullus lanatus
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; Citrullus lantus; Janine E. Victor and J. M. Suttie
• Garden Web: Harvesting Melons