MELON FACTS: Melon, any of the varieties of Cucumis melo, a trailing vine grown for its edible, often musky-scented fruit. Melons are members of the horticulturally diverse gourd family (Cucurbitaceae). They are frost-tender annuals, native to central Asia, and widely grownin many cultivated varieties in warm regions around the world. The species has soft, hairy trailing stems, large round to lobed leaves, and yellow flowers about 2.5 centimetres (1 inch) across. The fruits of the numerous cultivated varieties differ greatly in size, shape, surface texture, and flesh colour and flavour: they weigh from 1 to 4 kilograms (2 to 9 pounds).