Luffa echinata Roxb.

The fruit is intensely bitter and used medicinally.

A climber with bifid puberulous or glabrous tendrils. Stem sulcate, slightly hairy to glabrous. Leaves reniform, suborbicular, obscurely or deeply 5-lobed, apex round or rarely acute, scabrous on both surfaces, margin minutely denticulate. Petiole stout, puberulous, up to 12 cm long. Flowers white, pedicellate, c. 2.5 cm across; male flowers in 5-12-flowered, up to 15 cm long raceme; calyx tube c. 5.6 mm long, hairy, lobes lanceolate, acute. Petals ovate, 1-1.2 cm long, obtuse, hairy at the base. Stamens 3, filaments united, c. 3-9 mm long, obtuse, hairy at the base, anthers entire or ± bifid. Ovary ovoid. Fruit ashy, oblong, ovoid, 2-5 cm long, densely covered with c. 4-7 mm long bristles. Seeds ovate, black, slightly verrucose, emarginate, c. 4-5 mm long, 3-5 mm broad and c. 2 mm thick.

Distribution: Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Northern Tropical Africa.

100 - 300 m.

Fl. Per.: August-September.