Momordica charantia is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown for edible fruit, which is among the most bitter of all vegetables. English names for the plant and its fruit include bitter melon or bitter gourd (translated from Chinese: 苦瓜; pinyin: kǔguā), goya from Japanese, ampalaya from Tagalog, and karella from the Punjabi, Hindi-Urdu, Nepali and Bengali name of the vegetable, or khổ qua/ mướp đắng (literally:...
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Momordica charantia is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown for edible fruit, which is among the most bitter of all vegetables. English names for the plant and its fruit include bitter melon or bitter gourd (translated from Chinese: 苦瓜; pinyin: kǔguā), goya from Japanese, ampalaya from Tagalog, and karella from the Punjabi, Hindi-Urdu, Nepali and Bengali name of the vegetable, or khổ qua/ mướp đắng (literally: bitter luffa) from Vietnamese. South American and Caribbean names include Carilla, Balsamino and Saraseed.
The original home of the species is not known, other than that it is a native of the tropics. It is widely grown in India and other parts of the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, China, Africa, and the Caribbean.
The herbaceous, tendril-bearing vine grows to 5 m. It bears simple, alternate leaves 4–12 cm across, with 3–7 deeply separated lobes. Each plant bears separate yellow male and female flowers.
The fruit has a distinct warty...
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