SPINE GOURD

Common Name: Spine Gourd
Botanical Name: Momordica dioica
Specimens From: India
Specimens Weight: 80 gm [2.82 oz] (average wgt per fruit)

Spine gourd is cultivated in India. It is popular in some parts of India but hardly known in most places. This small, cute, spiny fruit is always used as a vegetable for cooking. It may look spiny but it is so soft to the touch that it won't hurt your fingers!

It is green when unripe and will turn yellow when mature. The seeds are white and soft but it will turn dark brown and hard when ripe. As in most fruits used as vegetables, always get those still in the green stage.

You may cook it in many different ways. Stir-fry with Indian spices, cook in curry, deep-fry or simply steam it plain to bring out the full aroma of this vegetable.

Do not get confused with another fruit, cucumis dipsaceus, commonly known as teasel gourd. From a glance, both fruits do look alike. But those fruits are with hair-like, similar to the rambutan whereas this fruit have small, short spine.


Fruit: Spine gourd; momordica dioica; Curcurbitaceae.


View other fruits in the same family: Curcurbitaceae [Gourd Family]


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