Momordica
Sp. Pl. 2: 1009. 1753.
Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 440. 1754.
| Taxon | Illustrator ⠉ | |
|---|---|---|
 | Momordica charantia subsp. charantia Thladiantha dubia Ecballium elaterium | Yevonn Wilson-Ramsey Yevonn Wilson-Ramsey Yevonn Wilson-Ramsey |
Plants annual [perennial], monoecious [dioecious], climbing or trailing; stems glabrous or hairy; roots fibrous; tendrils unbranched [2-branched]. Leaves simple or compound; blade broadly ovate or reniform to orbiculate, palmately 3–7 [–9] -lobed, usually pedate, lobes broadly ovate, rhombic-ovate, ovate-oblong, or ovate-elliptic, margins coarsely and widely dentate to crenate-dentate or sinuate-dentate, [mucronulate-dentate or remotely denticulate], surfaces eglandular. Inflorescences: staminate flowers solitary, [corymbose, racemose, or umbellate], axillary; pistillate flowers solitary, from different axils than staminate; peduncles erect at apex; bracts persistent, ovate-cordate, reniform, or orbiculate-cordate [ovate, rhombic-ovate]. Flowers: hypanthium obconic; sepals 5, linear to ovatelanceolate or ovate-acuminate; petals 5, distinct, yellow to bright-yellow [greenish yellow], obovate or oblong [suborbiculate], [5–] 7–25 [–32] mm, glabrous, corolla rotate to broadly and shallowly campanulate. Staminate flowers: stamens (2–) 3; filaments inserted near hypanthium rim, staminodes absent or 3, glandular. Fruits berrylike or capsular, pendent, red or red-orange to yellow-orange, oblong-fusiform to ellipsoidal, cylindric or ovoid, beaked, fleshy, thick-walled, irregularly tuberculate to muricate, muriculate, or irregularly smooth-ridged, glabrous, apically dehiscent by 3 valves [indehiscent or irregularly dehiscent]. Seeds 10–50, oblong to ovoid-oblong beyond narrowed base, turgid or flattened, red-arillate, margins grooved, surfaces smooth or sculptured. x = 11, 14.
Distribution
Introduced; Asia, Africa, Australia, also in Mexico, West Indies, South America, Europe, se Asia, Pacific Islands, Australia
Discussion
Species 59 (2 in the flora).
Selected References
None.
Lower Taxa
Key
| 1 | Bracts of staminate flowers near peduncle apex, margins dentate to denticulate; leaf lobes and teeth apiculate; fruits 2.5–4(–7) cm. | Momordica balsamina |
| 1 | Bracts of staminate flowers at or proximal to middle of peduncle, margins entire; leaf lobes and teeth sometimes submucronate but not apiculate; fruits 7–25 cm. | Momordica charantia |