Compilation
Momordica luffa

Herbaceous climber or trailer to 15 m.; stems finely hairy. Leaf-blade ovate-cordate in outline, 60–180 mm. long, 60–210 mm. broad, palmately 3–5-lobed; lobes triangular or ovate and broadest at the base, or broadest about the middle, narrowed below and slightly lobulate laterally, acute or subacute and apiculate, entire, sinuate-toothed or strongly sublobulate-dentate; central lobe the most prominent; petiole 22–150 mm. long, finely and somewhat densely adpressed-hairy. Tendrils 3–6-fid, rarely bifid, branches often unequal in stoutness. Probracts small, Ungulate, glandular, ± 3 mm. long. Male flowers ± 5–16 in 120–350 mm. long racemes; pedicels 3–7 mm. long, each bearing a small glandular bract near the base; receptacle-tube shortly campanulate, 4–8 mm. long, 5–7 mm. across, hairy inside; lobes triangular, acute, often acuminate, 8–12 mm. long; petals yellow or golden yellow, broadly rounded, apiculate, 25–45 mm. long, 18–35 mm. broad; stamens 3 or 5. Female flowers on 15–30 mm. long stalks; ovary cylindrical, densely and shortly adpressed-hairy, obscurely 10-ribbed, 20–36 mm. long, 4–7 mm. across; receptacle-tube shortly cylindrical, 4–6 mm. long; lobes ovate, 10–11 mm. long; petals 30–37 mm. long, 20–30 mm. broad. Fruit on a stout 20–60 mm. long stalk, ellipsoid or cylindrical, 60–190 mm. long, 25–60 mm. across or much larger, glabrous. Seeds lenticular, broadly elliptic in outline, 10–12 × 6–8 × 2–3 mm., ± smooth, dull, blackish, with a narrow membranous wing-like border most prominent distally. Fig. 10.