Group:
1 Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) - I - Dicotyledons
Family:
Cucurbitaceae
Genus:
Momordica
Common sinhala name:
Karawila
Habit:
Creeper
Origin:
Native
National conservation status:
LC - Least Concern
Legal status:
Similar species:
All vernacular names:
Batu karavila, Karavila, Karawila (S), Bitter gourd, Wild cucumber, Carilla fruit / Balsam pear (E), Pakal / Nuti-pakal (T)
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Contributors for Images:
FlowerSL, Wajir Nanayakkara, Aruna Yasapalitha, Sanjeewa Rupasinghe, Jecob de Vlas (ID-JdV)
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Annual or perennial, monoecious. Stem herbaceous, slender, much branched, obtusely 4—5-angled, channelled, sparsely, coarsely pubescent, climbing to 3 or 4 metres; tendrils simple. Leaves long-petiolate; lamina 4—10x 5—10 cm, circular or ovate-reniform in outline, deeply palmately 5—7 (—9)-lobed, deeply cordate at base, glabrous or slightly pubescent. Lobes irregularly toothed; petiole 3.5—7.5 cm long, at times bordered by decurrent leaf-base, subglabrous, Flowers pale- to orange-yellow, solitary in leaf axils. Male flower slender pedicellate; pedicel 5—10 cm long with suborbicular, entire bract up to c. 1 cm diameter at or about midway or below; calyx lobes ovate, acute; corolla to c. 3.5 cm diameter, lobes free almost to base. Female flower similar to male in size and shape. Fruit pendant, 10—25 x 5 cm, conic or suboblong, tapering towards apex, irregularly, longitudinally ridged, tuberculate between ridges, ripening orange, splitting into three irregular valves which reflex disclosing many brown or white seeds enclosed in red pulp. Seeds 8—10 mm long, oblong. (FOC)
