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 ovate-lanceolate 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, introduced also in Mexico, West Indies, South America, Europe, se Asia, Pacific Islands, Australia.

Discussion

Species 59 (2 in the flora).

Selected References

Schaefer, H. and S. S. Renner. 2010. A three-genome phylogeny of Momordica (Cucurbitaceae) suggests seven returns from dioecy to monoecy and recent long-distance dispersal to Asia. Molec. Phylogen. Evol. 54: 553–560.

Lower Taxa

Momordica balsamina, Momordica charantia

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