Bitter melon

Bitter melon (Momordica charantia L.), also called bitter cucumber, is a tropical plant from the Cucurbitaceae family (cucurbits). The plant is mainly cultivated in Africa, Asia, South America and the Caribbean and is known in Japan as Gōyā, in Sanskrit as Karela, in Malayalam as Pavaykka.

The shoots of the bitter melon are up to five metres long, its leaves are 0.5 to 7 cm long with stalk; its leaf blade is 1 to 10 cm long and 1 to 12.5 cm wide. The flowers of the bitter melon are solitary and are light to dark yellow in colour.
The fruit of the bitter melon is between 2.5 and 4.8 (in rare cases up to 11) cm long and 1.5 to 2.3 (in rare cases 4) cm wide. The fruits are oval or elliptical in shape. When ripe, they are a bright orange-red colour.

The bitter melon is the parent plant of Momordicae charantiae fructus