Garden Talk | Critters | Vines | Corn Tuft Pics
Mister Frog
Southern Balsam Pear Vines
Momordica charantia L.
 Vine Pic #1  Vine Pic #2  Vine Pic #3 |
Folks call this vine, a southern balsam pear vine, a balsam apple vine and other names.
The flowers are yellow, approximately 1" (inch / 2.54 centimeters) in diameter.
The fruit is orange and bumpy. And it grows quite well! This vine definitely likes climbing the
fence. It scoured the fence in 2004 and showed up in 2005, but a passion fruit vine took over
the fence. The passion fruit vine really goes to town during the summer months.
Butterflies love the passion fruit vine. Both passion fruit vines and balsam pear vines bear edible fruits, however at least one particular species of the passion fruit vine ends up as a poisonous vine. The neighbor ate one of the passion fruits on this vine.
The neighbor later planted one along her fence and her fence is now covered by the vine as well. I've since eaten some of the passion fruit on the vine. They are sweet and tastey. I've also eaten some of the southern balsam pear seeds. The fruit, though, caused some problems with my eyes and I decided not to eat the fruit. Eating the fruit caused the veins in my eyes to protrude, in many ways like the effects of consuming mauby bark tea with too much mauby bark involved, making me feel the veins when I blinked. I decided against eating the fruit in the future. But for the seeds, I let the seeds dry out in the sun before I eat those and I eat only one. I'll wait a week before eating another, just to be on the safe side. They provide a soothing effect to the mind and a feeling of relaxation.
The University of Florida indicates the seeds are poisonous. We are NOT doctors and due to the advice provided by the University of Florida, we do NOT suggest eating the seeds. The information here is provided only as something for study to those that are interested.
Things get really confusing though! The United States Government identifies that Momordica charantia L. looks like Momordica balsamina Linnaeus and vice versa. Someone is wrong somewhere. We sent an email to both the University of Florida and the University of South Florida in an attempt to see who knows what (2008.08.12), as well as the U.S.D.A.. It appears that the U.S.D.A. depends upon the Universities for their information(?). The U.S.D.A. link requires you to type in "Momordica charantia" to get to their page.
This plant ends up going by a few different names, some of which get confused with other plants, like the bitter melon vine from the orient. Momordica balsamina Linnaeus ends up as the scientific name/classification. See the bibliography at the end for more information about other links.
We will set up some photos in the near future of the passion fruit vine.
More Vines
Cucumber Vines
Watermelon Vines
Watermelon vines grow to long lengths. The first one we tried, grew to a nice 12 foot vine, but ended up destroyed by a passing hurricane in 2004. We planted it in full sun and watched it grow to a length of 12 feet, whereby in the latter months of summer, 2004, Hurricane Francis dropped in and destroyed three of our first sunflowers and many other plants. We discovered vines fare poorly inside hurricane-like environments. Two vines survived the hurricane, but not the watermelon vine. Those two other vines were cucumber vines that grew under an avocado tree, somewhat and fortunately were somewhat protected from the strong winds.
Tomato Vines
Tomatoes, the "fruit" everyone loves to call a vegetable, sometimes turns out as a bush, and sometimes gets called a vine. Is the tomato plant a bush or a vine? It grows like a vine and folks commonly plant it in a cage. The cage provides something for the tomato "vine" to climb.
NOTE: Tomatoes are succeptible to the tobacco mosaic virus. Do NOT let smokers anywhere near your tomatoes. Reportedly, 90% of the cigarettes carry tobacco mosaic virus.
Bibliography
U.S.D.A.
Plant Atlas, University Of South Florida
Momordica charantia L. (balsampear), Flower
Momordica charantia L. (balsampear), Fruit
Momordica charantia L. (balsampear), Fruit Bloom
Momor'dica balsamina (Bitter Melon)
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