Momordica charantia

• Botanical Name : Momordica charantia L.
• Common Name : Karela, Bitter Gourd
• Plant Family : Cucurbitaceae
• Plant Form : Climbers
• Occurrence (Sectors) : 1, 2, 5, 17, 25, 27, 29

About Momordica charantia Plant :

• Habit : An annual, monoecious climber with simple tendrils, stem angled and grooved, hairy.
• Leaves : Alternate, orbicular, hairy, deeply 5-7 lobed, lobes acute, spinous-dentate, base cordate, petioles long, channeled.
• Flowers :
  • Male flowers solitary, peduncles long, with a reniform bracts below the middle.
  • Calyx tube short, lobes 5, corolla yellow, segments 5, obtuse, veined.  
  • Stamens 3.
  • Female flowers solitary, bract near the base, staminodes 3.
  • Ovary inferior, fusiform, stigmas 3, bifid.
• Fruit : Pepo fusiform, pendulous, green, ribbed, with many triangular tubercles, seeds compressed.
• Flowering and Fruiting Time : August-October
• Significance :
  • Widely cultivated for its edible fruits as a vegetable.
  • The root and fruit are used medicinally in rheumatism and gout.