More on that Plant (also posted at Our Place)

LOL...And I feel stupid!

When C. brought that plant in for me to see we both felt a familiarity to it...It was kinda weird because neither of us could capture our memories/knowledge for this plant..but we both felt we had seen it before-also the smell of the leaves seemed familiar to us.

One of my readers  left a comment letting me know the name she knows it by.

Here  is the comment!

Mel Cole of PA, USA said...

Oh those! We call those Ampalaya. They are food for diebetic though. Have a beautiful Tuesday.  ~~

OK-I was excited to get this info and of course went to search out more information about this plant.

  ~

I found~

 another name  for this plant is 'Bitter Melon.'

This is some info on Wikipedia.    

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_melon          

~After learning this, Charles and I became concerned that this plant may have been planted by our daughter-in-law, Joy, as a veggie to use...and that it was NOT a wild plant at all like we had thought it to be!~      

LOL-OK-later  that night I talked to my D-I-L ( My new D-I-L who is a Filipino girl) and-indeed- she knew all about this plant and had grown it from seeds she had got from a friend!

The name she knows it by is 'Bitter Squash.'     

Oh, my! So we had messed up- but Joy and I had a good laugh over it!  :) Luckily, C. didn't remove the plants- just the fruit to show me!      

...so...the feeling of having known this plant before- or one closely related- kept gnawing at my memories... I decided to search out 'Florida Vines.' I had  almost immediate results in this journey! I found this!  

Bitter melon, Balsam apple - Momordica charantia  

 http://www.floridasnature.com/vines_%20gallery.htm    

...And then Charles and I both remembered a very similar problem vine we had  had in Miami that kept growing up among our Hibiscus hedge.  I remembered this but since the fruits were much smaller didn't make the connection that it is the same plant- or at least a very close relative!

~~

This plant seems to have many uses and is beneficial in a lot of ways ... also-parts of it can be toxic...so my first impression was not really that far off!  

Only one of the fruits C. picked to show me was at the edible stage...when they turn yellow they are only good for the seeds.   

Anyway-I have the seeds and will save them for next year!    

~~OK-then~ THIS is one reason I like blogging and the Internet!!  There's a whole world of knowledge at your fingertips!!~~    

Junie Rose