Momordica welwitschii Hook.fil.
Cucurbitaceae
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.
At a glance
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 summer growing season, July to October in the northern hemisphere (January to April at the habitat, southern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (170 mm of 212 mm) falls in January to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.6 °C against a yearly mean of 22.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: July to October.
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 212 mm a year, wettest March at 68 mm, driest May at 0 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
212 mm a year at the habitat, 170 mm of it January to April. Wettest month March at 68 mm, driest May at 0 mm; 5 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 147 mm to 352 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: 33 to 50 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 33 to 50 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 32, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).
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 7.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 7.1 °C, the absolute minimum 2.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.5 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.5 °C to 13.9 °C), warmest day 31.9 °C in October (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.1 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 41 to 54% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 30 / 29–33 | 31 / 29–33 | 31 / 28–33 | 31 / 28–33 | 31 / 28–32 | 28 / 25–30 | 27 / 25–30 | 29 / 25–31 | 31 / 28–33 | 32 / 30–34 | 32 / 30–34 | 32 / 29–33 |
| Night °C | 18 / 17–20 | 19 / 17–21 | 19 / 17–21 | 19 / 16–21 | 16 / 14–18 | 13 / 11–15 | 13 / 11–14 | 13 / 12–14 | 15 / 14–16 | 17 / 16–18 | 18 / 16–20 | 18 / 17–20 |
| Rain mm | 27 / 17–66 | 46 / 33–81 | 68 / 53–117 | 29 / 21–54 | 0 / 0–1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 / 4–13 | 17 / 9–30 | 17 / 9–38 |
| DLI | 47 / 45–49 | 44 / 42–45 | 41 / 40–42 | 38 / 38–40 | 36 / 35–37 | 33 / 32–34 | 34 / 33–35 | 38 / 37–40 | 44 / 43–45 | 49 / 47–49 | 50 / 49–51 | 50 / 48–52 |
| RH % | 52 / 51–54 | 54 / 53–56 | 54 / 53–57 | 49 / 48–52 | 43 / 40–47 | 42 / 39–48 | 42 / 39–50 | 41 / 38–53 | 43 / 39–53 | 44 / 41–52 | 46 / 44–51 | 47 / 47–52 |
Each figure is the median across the 13 grid cells holding the 13 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 2165:3856 (-18.275, 12.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.2 °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 13 distinct grid cells holding the 13 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2165:3856 (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 -18.50_13.125, lapse-corrected +78 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 966 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (8).
Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Related
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.
Commiphora anacardiifolia Large-Leaved Commiphora
Commiphora kuneneana Kunene Corkwood
Cyphostemma uter Vitaceae
Commiphora giessii Brown-Stemmed Corkwood
Commiphora multijuga Purple-Stemmed CommiphoraOther Momordica 50 in the reference
Momordica balsamina African Cucumber
Momordica boivinii Cucurbitaceae Momordica breteleri Cucurbitaceae Momordica cabrae Cucurbitaceae Momordica calantha Cucurbitaceae Momordica camerounensis Cucurbitaceae
Momordica cardiospermoides Cucurbitaceae
Momordica charantia Balsam Pear all 51 ›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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.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 answeredopenalex nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








