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Bitter Melon
Douglas Goldman, CC BY-SA 4.0, via iNaturalist

Gourd family: sopropo & pumpkin

Bitter Melon

Momordica charantia L.

Introduced by people

Names

EnglishBitter Melon
DutchSopropo
SpanishPepino cimarrón
Chinese苦瓜
Sranan Tongosopropo
Scientific nameMomordica charantia L.

About this species

Momordica charantia (commonly called bitter melon, gouya, cerassee, goya, bitter apple, bitter gourd, bitter squash, balsam-pear, karela, karavila and many more names listed below) is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean for its edible fruit. Its many varieties differ substantially in the shape and bitterness of the fruit.

Its native range is distributed from Tropical and Subtropical Old World to South Pacific.

Bitter melon originated in Africa and Asia, where it was a dry-season staple food of ǃKung hunter-gatherers. Wild or semi-domesticated variants spread across Asia in prehistory, and it was likely fully domesticated in Southeast Asia. It is widely used in the cuisines of East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Read more on Wikipedia · Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Classification

KingdomPlantae
PhylumTracheophyta
ClassMagnoliopsida
OrderCucurbitales
FamilyCucurbitaceae
GenusMomordica

In Suriname

46Records in Suriname
16iNaturalist observations
1901First record
2026Latest record

Where it has been recorded

  • Paramaribo11
  • Nickerie5
  • Sipaliwini5
  • Brokopondo2
  • Commewijne2
  • Para1
  • Saramacca1

Districts with at least one record that has coordinates. Shaded districts have records.

Records by month

All years combined.

Sources & credits

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