AusTraits

Momordica charantia

Explore the data for this taxon in the portal

Family Cucurbitaceae

Taxonomy: Momordica charantia L.

Synonyms: none listed in the APC 2026-07-30

Distribution (APC): ChI, Qld, NSW (naturalised)

Profiles: APC, Flora of Australia, ALA, iNaturalist, NSW Flora, ATRP

Traits

Top source datasets: ABRS_2022 (4), ABRS_2023 (20), ATRP_2020 (1), Cooper_2013 (13), Kew_2019_1 (12), Kew_2019_2 (4), Kew_2019_4 (4), NHNSW_2014_2 (1), NHNSW_2022 (4), NHNSW_2023 (13), NTH_2022 (5), NTH_2023 (24), Sjostrom_2006 (3), Wenk_2022 (2), Wenk_2023 (1), eFLOWER_Dun_2022 (21). See below for a full list of sources.
Summary: AusTraits contains 52 traits from 132 records in 16 datasets.

Traits by category (click to expand). For categorical traits, the values are listed. For numerical traits, the mean and range are shown.

flower morphology
  • sex_type (categorical): monoecious (2) [sources: ABRS_2022; NTH_2022]
fruit morphology
  • fruit_length (numerical): 75 mm (30-120 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; Cooper_2013; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
  • fruit_width (numerical): 25 mm (20-30 mm) [sources: Cooper_2013]
  • fruit_type (categorical): berry (1); capsule (1) [sources: Cooper_2013; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_fleshiness (categorical): dry (1); fleshy (1) [sources: Cooper_2013; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_dehiscence (categorical): dehiscent (2); indehiscent (1) [sources: Cooper_2013; NTH_2023; Sjostrom_2006]
  • fruit_colour (categorical): orange (3); red (3); yellow (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
leaf morphology
  • leaf_length (numerical): 60 mm (25-100 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_width (numerical): 57.5 mm (35-80 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • petiole_length (numerical): 3.25 cm (1-5 cm) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_shape (categorical): orbicular (2); ovate (1); widely_ovate (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_base_shape (categorical): cordate (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_margin (categorical): toothed (1); toothed_dentate (2) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_lobation (categorical): lobed (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_compoundness (categorical): simple (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2014_2; NTH_2023]
  • leaf_phyllotaxis (categorical): alternate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2023]
  • plant_photosynthetic_organ (categorical): leaf (3) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
life history
  • plant_growth_form (categorical): climber_herbaceous (3); herb (3) [sources: ABRS_2022; ATRP_2020; Cooper_2013; NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; Wenk_2022]
  • life_history (categorical): annual (4); perennial (1) [sources: ABRS_2022; NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; Wenk_2023]
  • woodiness_detailed (categorical): herbaceous (4) [sources: ABRS_2022; NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022; Wenk_2022]
  • stem_growth_habit (categorical): climbing (1); prostrate (1) [sources: NHNSW_2022; NTH_2022]
  • dispersers (categorical): birds (1) [sources: Cooper_2013]
  • flowering_time (categorical): nnnnnynnnnnn (1) [sources: Cooper_2013]
seed morphology
  • seed_dry_mass (numerical): 66.74 mg (23-166.7 mg) [sources: Kew_2019_1]
  • seed_length (numerical): 11.5 mm (8-16 mm) [sources: ABRS_2023; Cooper_2013; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]
  • seed_width (numerical): 4.5 mm (4-5 mm) [sources: NTH_2023]
  • seed_shape (categorical): ovoid (2); ovoid_flattened (1) [sources: ABRS_2023; NHNSW_2023; NTH_2023]

Sources

dataset_idn_traitsn_recordsreference
NTH_20231724D. of Land Resource Management and N. T. of Australia. Northern Territory Flora Online. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://eflora.nt.gov.au/.
eFLOWER_Dun_20222021L. Dun and H. Sauquet. “Unpublished: Floral traits for GAP taxa, University of New South Wales, Australia”. 2022.
ABRS_20231420Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2023. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
Cooper_20131013W. Cooper and W. T. Cooper. Australian rainforest fruits. CSIRO Publishing, 2013, p. 272.
NHNSW_20231013N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2023. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
Kew_2019_1112Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
NTH_202255D. of Land Resource Management and N. T. of Australia. Northern Territory Flora Online. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: http://eflora.nt.gov.au/.
ABRS_202244Australian Biological Resources Study. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.. accessed on 14 September, 2022.. 2022. url: http://www.ausflora.org.au.
Kew_2019_214Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
Kew_2019_414Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Oil content data from Seed Information Database (SID) and Seed Bank Database. 2019. url: http://data.kew.org/sid/.
NHNSW_202244N. H. of New South Wales. The Plant Information Network System of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust Version 2.0.. accessed on 6 May, 2022.. 2022. url: https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
Sjostrom_200633A. Sjöström and C. L. Gross. “Life-history characters and phylogeny are correlated with extinction risk in the Australian angiosperms”. Journal of Biogeography 33.2 (2006), pp. 271-290. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2005.01393.x.
Wenk_202222E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant growth forms dataset”. 2022.
ATRP_202011F. A. Zich, B. P. Hyland, T. Whiffin, and R. A. Kerrigan. Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants, Edition 8. 2020. url: https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/intro/index.html.
NHNSW_2014_211Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. PLantNET: NSW flora online. 2014. url: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/.
Wenk_202311E. Wenk. “Unpublished data: Australian plant life history dataset, University of New South Wales, Sydney”. 2023.