Species
+
Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built. Not a statement that none exist.

Momordica sessilifolia Cogn.

Cucurbitaceae

Climate known Photographs not checked 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.

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
Cogn.
Native to
Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya
Wild records
24 in range· 24 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Sep, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
241mm/yr
4 wet months · peak Apr 60 mm (CHELSA)
Light
32–44DLI
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, April to May and October to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.7 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 241 mm a year, wettest April at 60 mm, driest August at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 14.2 °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 Momordica stefaninii (Chiov.) Cufod.; Momordica stefaninii var. membranosa (Chiov.) Cufod.; Raphanocarpus membranosus (Chiov.) Chiov.; Raphanocarpus stefaninii Chiov.; Raphanocarpus stefaninii var. membranosa Chiov.

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, April to May and October to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.7 °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 (189 mm of 241 mm) falls in April to May and October to November. The temperature curve is flat, 2.7 °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, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there 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 241 mm a year, wettest April at 60 mm, driest August at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

241 mm a year at the habitat, 189 mm of it April to May and October to November. Wettest month April at 60 mm, driest August at 1 mm; 4 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 140 mm to 496 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 32 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 44 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 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

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 14.2 °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 14.2 °C, the absolute minimum 12.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.9 °C in December (across the envelope cells 15.7 °C to 23.1 °C), warmest day 31.3 °C in September (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.2 °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: 50 to 57% 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 29 °C in Nov to 31 °C in Sep; mean night from 19 °C in Dec to 22 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 241 mm of rain a year, most in Apr. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 22 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 12.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.2 °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°40°36.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)12.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 32–44RH 50–57 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 22 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 °C30 / 26–3431 / 28–3531 / 30–3531 / 29–3331 / 28–3331 / 28–3330 / 27–3331 / 28–3331 / 29–3430 / 28–3229 / 27–3229 / 26–33
Night °C20 / 15–2321 / 15–2421 / 17–2521 / 19–2522 / 20–2522 / 20–2522 / 19–2421 / 19–2421 / 19–2420 / 18–2419 / 17–2319 / 16–23
Rain mm5 / 1–204 / 1–1616 / 5–5260 / 29–13945 / 23–652 / 1–182 / 0–161 / 0–1310 / 2–1549 / 18–8035 / 12–6512 / 4–56
DLI41 / 37–4244 / 40–4644 / 41–4741 / 35–4538 / 35–4032 / 28–3733 / 26–3635 / 30–3938 / 36–4239 / 34–4236 / 34–4038 / 35–39
RH %52 / 44–5851 / 43–6052 / 47–6157 / 54–6356 / 54–6251 / 49–5850 / 49–5650 / 48–5751 / 49–5955 / 53–6555 / 52–6154 / 48–59

Each figure is the median across the 22 grid cells holding the 24 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 1667:4430 (6.625, 41.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.2 °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 22 distinct grid cells holding the 24 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1667:4430 (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 6.50_41.250, lapse-corrected -30 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 902 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.
NativeEthiopia, Somalia, Kenya
Kew's description“tuberous shrub” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker9.567, 48.983 · in the densest population, 10 records (42% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 24 georeferenced records inside the native range, all openly licensed and shown on the map.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 24 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Papers naming this species

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

Momordica sessilifolia Cogn.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2025) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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 nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
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 did not answerapi.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
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 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.