Balsam Pear

Balsam Pear

Common Name: Balsam Pear

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.[1] Bernard McMahon listed this species among “tender annual flowers” in his book.[2] It is generally lumped with the balsam apple, but the balsam pear has a "shorter vine and longer fruit."[3]

- Text from Center for Historic Plants Information Sheet

Further Sources

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

Footnotes

• 1. Lawrence D. Griffith, Flowers and Herbs of Early America (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008), 28.
• 2. Bernard McMahon, The American Gardener's Calendar (Philadelphia: B. Graves, 1806), 609-10.
• 3. Denise Wiles Adams, Restoring American Gardens: An Encyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants, 1640-1940 (Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, 2004), 150. See also Griffith, 28-29.