PlantFiles: Balsam Apple, Cundeamor
Momordica balsamina

Please do not plant this vine anywhere in Florida. It is highly invasive. It came to my yard as a weed and it covers everything in a matter of days. I have worked hours and hours to remove every root and it just keeps coming back. I thought I won when it disappeared the first winter (2 years ago), but it just goes dormant in winter. Nothing stops it permanently unless you want to kill everything in your garden with Roundup.

This vine is horrible. It is indeed a very noxious, invasive weed. I don't see how it can have any value at all. Please don't plant it.

I am in a constant battle with this plant. If left alone, it will cover everything in my yard with no mercy! Unfortunately it especially loves to grow in and on my large bougainvilleas. That is a painful chore...

This is a lovely annual vine to cover a structure or fence quickly. The flowers are light yellow, about an inch across, with the pods forming later. The leaves are somewhat cut, a medium green in color. In my area it reseeds prolifically, and can be a pest. I like it, though.

There are many references to this plant's medicinal and food use in parts of Africa. More research needs to be done on this plant to find out about its usefulness.

Our family, starting with my grandmother, have made a great Balsam Salve using this plant as a basis. I am looking for the seeds so that I may make a batch of the salve for our family. Thanks,

Mary Lou Hermann

This vine is a major pest in my yard. It covers everything. It's threatening my fruit trees. Does anybody know a good safe way to eradicate it, or at least keep it under control?

This plant is used by many families of German ancestory here in Ohio as a medecine. I have found two recipes using the fruit of this plant cut up mixed with whiskey. This makes a lumpy liquid that is best for blisters or any open cut really. I am searching for the best way to start the seeds. My older generation has passed on before I learned enough on how to start this plant. I have the seeds but am not having much success in starting this vining plant.

There is some confusion [around this plant] because both Momordica balsamina and Momordica charantia have the same common name of Bitter Melon.

Though very pretty, and I still leave a few on the fence..The rest get pulled or sprayed.. It is a very noxious weed here in south GA..
Larkie

The seeds are brown covered with a red fleshy substance (pulpy aril) that tastes similar to watermelon. It is delicious, and may help those with diabetes, but the seeds may give you an upset stomach if chewed.

I recommend reading Poisonous Plants and Animals of Florida and the Caribbean by David W. Nellis, published by Pineapple Press in Sarasota. There is a picture of this fruit on the cover. The author states that the seeds contain a purgative oil.

In India, as bitter as it is, this plant is commonly eaten as a vegetable.

Also, it can bring down blood sugar levels in diabetics and is used herbally for this purpose.

I think I am the only person that doesn't like these vines! They are invasive, and take over anywhere if not pulled up. I also think they have an unpleasant odor. I tend to find them trying to cover up other plants and take over fences. Sorry to say, but I pull these up any time I see a seedling trying to grow in my yard.

This plant is medicinal; we use it for the temporary relief of chronic skin rash. Also, you can chew the red sweet seeds (do not swallow.)

I live in Queensland, Australia and I first learnt about this plant by accident. We moved onto acreage about 4 months ago where the gardens had been very neglected etc...I started watering exisitng gardens and up popped these vines...we did not have a clue what they were until someone identified them for me.....

Our soil is not fertilised, is mainly a sandy loam and the vines are flourishing at a very rapid rate producing many flowers and abundant in fruit.

The bright yellow flowers, flower all day, every day here and we are experiencing new plants popping up everyday also...the pods when explode open to reveal the bright red pulpy seeds are dropping to the ground and they just keep forming new plants!!!
We do not look after these vines with any thing other than a watering every couple of days. They do not seem to be affected by any insects, parasites or the like....although our common black ant seems to love feeding on them when they have exploded.
In the four or five months that they have been growing and producing fruits - I have NOT encountered any dying off of the vine, no yellowing of leaves, the fruits seem to develope at many different sizes and also have noted that no birds or bees seem to favour this plant.

It is my way of thinking that if grown in different parts of the world...this plant will very much vary. I have detected no disease or fungus, no aphids or pests here in QLD, Australia (so far) that affects this plant.

Momordica belongs to the cucumber family, Cucurbitaceae. Momordica balsamina (aka Balsam Pear, Bitter Cucumber, La-Kwa, or Bitter Melon) is a tender, tropical perennial grown as an annual.

They are luscious, high-climbing vines with slightly fuzzy stems clothed with dark green, deeply lobed leaves and yellow, dioecious (male & female organs on separate flowers) flowers. The blossoms have 5 petals and are an inch in diameter.

The flowers open at sunrise and remain open for only one day. In regions with a long growing season, these vines produce handsome, oblong, lumpy fruits with light green to greenish-white, waxy skin. When they are mature, they take on an orange hue and the skin dries and splits open to expose bright scarlet arils (tissue) surrounding the brown or white seeds.

The fruit is 4 to 6 inches long, oblong, pointed and furrowed lengthwise. When full ripe it splits into 3 divisions. The immature fruit is boiled as a vegetable. A pulpy aril surrounds the seeds, which is esteemed by Orientals. The pulp of these seeds is eaten in the Orient, but these vines are mainly grown for ornament in the U.S.