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Annual or perennial: fls. monoecious or dioecious, the staminate solitary or panicled, the pistillate solitary; corolla and calyx similar in sterile and fertile fls.; corolla-segms. 5, often extending nearly to the base, making a rotate or broadly campanulate fl.; stamens usually 3. the short filaments free, one of the anthers 1-loculed and the others 2-loculed; style single and long, with 3 stigmas: fr. oblong or nearly spherical, small, often rough, usually many-seeded, sometimes splitting into 3 valves, but usually indehiscent; seeds usually flattened, often oddly marked or sculptured: tendrils simple, in this distinguished from Luffa.— Species about 35, chiefly in Trop. Afr. also Trop. Asia. Two momordicas (M. Charantia and M. Balsamina) are known to American gardens as ornamental vines, but the frs. of M. Charantia are eaten by the American Chinese. They are tender annuals and thrive where cucumbers and gourds will grow. They are excellent in the S. for covering porches and arbors. M. Elaterium of the catalogues is Ecballium, which see.

Annual or perennial: fls. monoecious or dioecious, the staminate solitary or panicled, the pistillate solitary; corolla and calyx similar in sterile and fertile fls.; corolla-segms. 5, often extending nearly to the base, making a rotate or broadly campanulate fl.; stamens usually 3. the short filaments free, one of the anthers 1-loculed and the others 2-loculed; style single and long, with 3 stigmas: fr. oblong or nearly spherical, small, often rough, usually many-seeded, sometimes splitting into 3 valves, but usually indehiscent; seeds usually flattened, often oddly marked or sculptured: tendrils simple, in this distinguished from Luffa.— Species about 35, chiefly in Trop. Afr. also Trop. Asia. Two momordicas (M. Charantia and M. Balsamina) are known to American gardens as ornamental vines, but the frs. of M. Charantia are eaten by the American Chinese. They are tender annuals and thrive where cucumbers and gourds will grow. They are excellent in the S. for covering porches and arbors. M. Elaterium of the catalogues is Ecballium, which see.

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