Sechium edule: (a) branch with leaves, tendrils and staminate and pistillate flowers; (b) staminate flower; (c) fruits (Reprinted with permission from Nee 1993).

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... thanks are due to the Interna- tional Plant Genetic Resources Institute, the Centre of Information for Science and the Humanities of the UNAM and, above all, to Abdenago Brenes (Agricultural Engineer, at the National Heredia University, Costa Rica) for his timely and efficient help in obtaining many of the bibliographical references and data which have been analyzed in this work. Grateful thanks is also extended to the Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Veracruz for permission to reproduce Figure 3. ...

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... chayote is a herbaceous, perennial, monoecious, vigorous creeper or climbing plant (Fig. 3). It grows from a single, thick root, which produces adventitious tuber- ous roots (Fig. 4). The stems are angular-grooved and glabrous, and several grow simultaneously from a single root, at least in the cultivated plants. They thicken towards the base and appear woody, while towards the apex there are many thin, firm, herbaceous ...

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... the blade is a firm papiraceous-membranous, ovate-cordate to suborbicu- lar, 10-30 cm long, and almost as wide at the widest point, slightly 3-5 angular-lobed with pointed to acuminate lobes, the margins are totally to slightly dentate, and the base is cordate-rectangular, with the sinus open to semiclosed by the bases of the lateral lobes (Fig. 3); both blade surfaces are pubescent when young, later becoming glabrescent, although the adaxial one is persistently puberulent on the veins. Like almost all Cucurbitaceae, the chayote plant develops tendrils for support. These are sturdy, 3-5 branched, furrowed and essentially ...

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... There are also five pet- als, patent, green to greenish-white, which are widely triangular, obtuse to acute, 6- 7 mm long and 2-3 mm wide. The stamens are five with fused filaments along almost all of the length, forming a thick column, which normally separates into five short branches (although sometimes three, and more rarely four, are found) (Fig. 3); the anthers develop at the apex of the short branches of the filaments, they are oblong and when three are found, two of them are bithecous and one monothecous, and when there are more than three, apparently all are bithecous, the thecas are flexuous and the connective has some scattered short hairs with an enlarged base. A total of ...

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... on a shared peduncle (Fig. 5). They are fleshy or fleshy-fibrous, may have longitudinal ridges or furrows, and come in many different shapes (globose, ovoid, subovoid, pyriform, elongated pyriform), sizes (4.3-26.5 cm long, 3-11 cm wide), and colours (from white to pale yellow -colours not found in wild populations -to dark or light green) (Figs. 3, 6); they may be unarmed and smooth, or with varied indumentum or armature, although they generally conserve the characteristics of the ovary. They may have woody ridges or lenticels on the surface, especially when ripe; the pulp is pale green or whitish and tastes bitter in wild plants and pleasant, sweet or insipid in cultivated plants; ...

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... as well as the selection and classification of fruits for export and home markets. In general, the most common strategy is to devote 1 day a week to harvest fruits for exportation and the remaining days to harvest the fruits for local markets. Once the fruits have been collected and selected, they are put in wooden boxes and sent to the packers (Fig. 13). There, a second selection process takes place after which the fruits are packed in cardboard boxes and plastic bags with antitranspirants and fungicides (Figs. 14, 15); these are then sent in refrigerated containers (Zuñiga 1986;Flores 1989). Fig. 15. Fruits in cardboard boxes ready for shipping. Promoting the conservation and use of ...