ABSTRACT
Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus var. lanatus), a C3 xerophyte, belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae, order Cucurbitales, and tribe Benincasinae. It originated from South Africa. The cultivation of watermelon slowly extended from tropical Africa to India and China by the tenth century to European countries by the seventeenth century. The European colonists introduced watermelon in the United States where Spanish settlers started growing it initially in Florida during the sixteenth century. Its cultivation was quickly accepted by other states and was spread to Hawaii and pacic islands (David and Donald, 2012). China is the lead producer (70,000,000 t) of watermelons globally (2012 census, UN_FAOSTAT).
