Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 1009 (1753).

Derivation: Greek mordeo, to bite; alluding to the bitten appearance of the seeds.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Trailing or climbing annual or perennial herbs; tendrils usually unbranched; leaves usually palmately 3- to 7-lobed.

Flowers unisexual, monoecious; male flowers solitary; peduncle with 1 bract (the extension of the peduncle above the bract is here called a pedicel); hypanthium obconic; calyx 5-lobed; petals 5, free, 1-3 with incurved scales inside at the base; stamens 3, inserted at the base of the hypanthium; anthers basifixed, 2 2-locular, 1 1-locular, usually free, locules usually flexuose; disk absent; female flowers solitary; peduncle with 1 bract or bract absent; perianth similar to or smaller than the males; ovary ovoid to fusiform; ovules many, horizontal; stigmas 3, 2-lobed.

Fruit mostly indehiscent, pulpy; seeds ovate, compressed, ornamented.

Distribution:  About 42 species in the Old World tropics and subtropics, 3 native in Australia, 1 in S.Aust.

Biology: The flower-stalk in Momordica consists of a peduncle below the bract and a pedicel above it.

Author: Not yet available