Species
+

Momordica foetida Schum.

anongbo, bombo, dombo, londombo

Climate known 80 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Momordica foetida is a perennial climbing vine native of tropical Africa, closely related to the bitter melon and balsam apple. Its species name ("bad-smelling") refers to its unpleasant smell. It was previously named M. morkorra and M. cordata (Cogn.)

Text from Wikipedia, “Momordica foetida”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Momordica

Momordica is a genus of about 60 species of annual or perennial climbers herbaceous or rarely small shrubs belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae, native of tropical and subtropical Africa and Asia and Australia. Most species produce floral oils and are visited by specialist pollinators in the apid tribe Ctenoplectrini. A molecular phylogeny that includes all species is available.

Text from Wikipedia, “Momordica”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Cucurbitaceae
Described by
Schum.
Native to
Benin, Ghana, Guinea +31
Wild records
1000 in range· 615 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Feb, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1179mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Apr 151 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–37DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Momordica, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, October to January and March to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.8 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1179 mm a year, wettest April at 151 mm, driest July at 35 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 9.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cucumis cordifolius E.Mey.; Cucumis cordifolius E.Mey. ex Sond.; Momordica cordifolia E.Mey.; Momordica cordifolia E.Mey. ex Sond.; Momordica cucullata Hook.fil. and 6 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Momordica, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, October to January and March to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.8 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (876 mm of 1179 mm) falls in October to January and March to May. The temperature curve is flat, 3.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1179 mm a year, wettest April at 151 mm, driest July at 35 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1179 mm a year at the habitat, 876 mm of it October to January and March to May. Wettest month April at 151 mm, driest July at 35 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 879 mm to 2650 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 9.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 9.5 °C, the absolute minimum 6.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 13.4 °C in July (across the envelope cells 4.9 °C to 21.5 °C), warmest day 26.2 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 22 °C in Jul to 26 °C in Feb; mean night from 13 °C in Jul to 17 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1179 mm of rain a year, most in Apr. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 767 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 6.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°30.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)6.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 27–37RH 60–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 767 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 22–3226 / 23–3226 / 22–3224 / 21–3023 / 19–3023 / 18–2922 / 17–2823 / 19–2824 / 21–2925 / 21–2925 / 22–2925 / 22–30
Night °C16 / 12–2217 / 13–2317 / 13–2316 / 11–2315 / 8–2314 / 5–2213 / 5–2214 / 7–2214 / 9–2215 / 11–2216 / 12–2216 / 12–22
Rain mm108 / 14–253103 / 29–227131 / 82–245151 / 49–302120 / 19–27039 / 11–25935 / 8–26246 / 10–30480 / 13–341117 / 43–326126 / 48–230123 / 17–231
DLI36 / 32–4037 / 33–4235 / 31–4032 / 27–3730 / 23–3528 / 21–3327 / 22–3430 / 24–3534 / 26–3933 / 28–4134 / 29–4035 / 31–39
RH %63 / 50–6863 / 50–6864 / 55–6964 / 59–7163 / 56–7161 / 53–7160 / 52–7160 / 53–7261 / 53–7163 / 56–7164 / 57–7064 / 53–69

Each figure is the median across the 767 grid cells holding the 987 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1852:4194 (-2.625, 29.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 767 distinct grid cells holding the 987 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1852:4194 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -2.50_30.000, lapse-corrected +180 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1712 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBenin, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Cabinda, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces
Kew's description“liana” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-29.875, 30.375 · in the densest population, 200 records (20% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1000 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 615 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3051 km away. 13 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1000 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Momordica foetidaMomordica foetidaMomordica foetidaMomordica foetidaMomordica foetidaMomordica foetidaMomordica foetidaMomordica foetida

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (5); (c) Elliot Greiner, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Anders Hastings, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Momordica foetida, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The in vitro and in vivo antimalarial activity of Cardiospermum halicacabum L. and Momordica foetida Schumch. Et Thonn.
Paul Waako, Bonginkosi Gumede, Peter G. Smith, Peter I. Folb (2005) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Effect of gap size and age on climber abundance and diversity in Budongo Forest Reserve, Uganda
Fred Babweteera, Andrew J. Plumptre, J. Obua (2000) · African Journal of Ecology
Traditional knowledge transfer of activities practised by Zulu women to manage medicinal and food plant gardens
A.M. Zobolo, QN Mkabela (2006) · African Journal of Range and Forage Science
Cucurbitane triterpenoids from the leaves of Momordica foetida
Dulcie A. Mulholland, Vikash Sewram, Roy Osborne, Karl H. Pegel (1997) · Phytochemistry
Three Selected Edible Crops of the Genus Momordica as Potential Sources of Phytochemicals: Biochemical, Nutritional, and Medicinal Values
Mashudu Muronga, Cristina Quispe, Phumudzo P. Tshikhudo, Titus A.M. Msagati (2021) · Frontiers in Pharmacology
Plants traditionally used against malaria: phytochemical and pharmacological investigation of Momordica foetida
Sonja Froelich, Bernadina Onegi, Adrian B Kakooko, Karsten Siems (2007) · Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia
THE EFFECT OF FOETIDIN FROM MOMORDICA FOETIDA ON BLOOD GLUCOSE LEVEL OF ALBINO RATS
Valentin Marquis, T. Adanlawo, Ajibola A. Olaniyi (1977) · Planta Medica
Insecticidal effects of some selected plant extracts against Anopheles stephensi (Culicidae: Diptera)
Merdya Muhammed, Sisay Dugassa, Merga Belina, Sarah Zohdy (2022) · Malaria Journal
The In-vitro ascaricidal activity of selected indigenous medicinal plants used in ethno veterinary practices in Uganda
Deogracious Olila, Wasswa Peter (2006) · African Journal of Traditional Complementary and Alternative Medicines
Biological screening of Kenyan medicinal plants using Artemia salina L.(ARTEMIIDAE)
Joseph Mwanzia Nguta, JM Mbaria, D.W. Gakuya, P. K. Gathumbi (2011) · University of Nairobi Research Archive (University of Nairobi)
Manual skills for food processing by mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda
Johanna Neufuss, Martha M. Robbins, Jana Baeumer, Tatyana Humle (2018) · Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Momordica 50 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 59 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.