This "bitter melon" is an annual that is occasionally cultivated in Ky. and elsewhere across North America. It may rarely escape, but it is probably not persistent except in Flo. and on the Gulf Coastal Plain (FNA 6, K, W). The plant climbs with tendrils that have 1-2 branches; leaves are deeply lobed; corollas are 5-lobed, yellow, with petals 7-25 mm long; ripe fruits are 7-25 cm long, red to yellow to (in cultivars) white or remaining green, muricate or tuberculate, 10-25-seeded, dehiscent by 3 valves or somewhat irregularly (W).