Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is a scrambling and trailing vine in the flowering plant family Cucurbitaceae. The species was long thought to have originated in southern Africa, but this was based on the erroneous synonymization by L. H. Bailey of a South African species with the cultivated watermelon. The error became apparent with DNA comparison of material of the cultivated watermelon seen and named by Linnaeus and the holotype of the South African species.There is evidence from seeds in Pharaoh tombs of watermelon cultivation in Ancient Egypt.
