Balsam Pear

Common Name: Balsam Pear^[1]

Scientific Name: Momordica charantia

Description: Tropical vine grown as a garden annual; bright yellow flowers followed by curious, oblong, yellow-orange warty fruits that burst open when ripe; attractive, glossy green foliage

Size: Grows 12 to 15 feet high

Cultural Information: Prefers full sun to light shade and well-drained garden loam

Historical Notes: This unusual vine from the Old World tropics has been cultivated for its edible fruits since the early 1700s.^[2] Bernard McMahon listed this species among “tender annual flowers” in his book.^[3] It is generally lumped with the Balsam Apple, but the balsam pear has a "shorter vine and longer fruit."^[4]

Footnotes

1. ↑ This article is based on a Center Historic Plant Information Sheet.
2. ↑ Lawrence D. Griffith, Flowers and Herbs of Early America (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008), 28.
3. ↑ Bernard McMahon, The American Gardener’s Calendar, 1806 (Charlottesville: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1997), 172, 290, 344, and 416.
4. ↑ Denise Wiles Adams, Restoring American Gardens: An Encyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants, 1640-1940 (Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, Inc., 2004), 150. See also Griffith, 28-29.

Further Sources

• Seeds available for purchase at Monticello Museum Shop
• Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants

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