Momordica charantia L., Sp. Pl. 2: 1009. 1753; Clarke in Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 616. 1879; Cogn. in A. & C. DC., Monogr. Phan. 3: 436. 1881; Chakravarty, Monogr. Ind. Cucurbit. in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. 17: 86. 1959; Stewart in Nasir & Ali, Ann. Cat. Vasc. Pl. W. Pak. and Kashm. 705. 1972; C. Jeffrey, Kew Bull. 34: 790. 1989; Chakravarty, Fasc. Fl. India 11: 89. 1982; Singh & Sharma, Fl. Chamba Distt. 339. 2006; Kaur & Sharma, Fl. Sirmaur 313. 2004; Lu & Jeffrey, Fl. China 19: 29; Fl. Pak @ eFlorras.org p.7; M. indica L., Herb. Amb. 24. 1754

Annual scandent or climber, many branched, monoecious. Stem and branches pubescent. Tendrils up to 20 cm long, simple, pubescent. Leaves alternate, simple; petiole slender, 4-10 cm long, villous (white pubescent) at first, glabrescent later; leaf blade ovate-reniform or suborbicular, or orbicular, 4-12 cm x 4-12 cm, membranous, pubescent or puberulent, more prominent on veins on both surfaces, deeply 5-7-lobed, lobes ovate-oblong, veins palmate, margin crenate or irregularly lobed, apex obtuse or acute; sinus semicircular. Flowers unisexual, actinomorphic, epigynous, yellow. MALE FLOWERS: Solitary axillary, ca. 3 cm across. Pedicel/ peduncle slender, ca. 7 cm (up to 9.4 cm) long, puberulent, with a bract nearly in the middle; bract reniform or orbicular, ca. 1.2 cm x 1.5 cm, entire, both surfaces puberulent, on lower surface hairs confined to veins. Calyx tube campanulate, short, ca. 4 mm long, lobes 5, 5-6 mm x 2-3 mm, narrowly ovate or ovate-lanceolate, apex acute, white pubescent. Corolla yellow, rotate or broadly campanulate, lobes 5, obovate, 15-20 mm x 8-12 mm, pubescent, apex obtuse or retuse. Stamens 3, free, filaments short; anther cells conduplicate; connective not produced. FEMALE FLOWERS: Solitary, yellow, ca. 2.5 cm across, pedicel/peduncle 5-7.5 cm (-9.5cm), with a bract at base or up to middle; calyx and corolla as in male flowers. Staminodes 3. Tricarpellary, syncarpous; ovary fusiform or oblong, densely verrucose, ovules many, horizontal; style 3 mm long; stigmas 3, irregularly 2-lobed. Fruit orange when mature, fusiform or cylindric, 19-20 cm long, 8-10-ribbed, verrucose, beaked, 3-valved from apex, dehiscent. Seeds numerous, compressed, oblong, 10-20 mm x 6-15 mm.

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