Momordica trifoliolata Hook.F.

Climber or trailer to 6 m.. Stems herbaceous, arising from a woody subterranean tuber, green, glabrous or somewhat hairy especially at the nodes, becoming more woody and grey-barked when older; basal stems gnarled and thickened with pale flaking bark.. Leaves pedately 3(–5–6–9–15)-foliolate, foetid when crushed; terminal leaflet largest, ovate, equal-based, slightly apiculate, subentire to sinuate and obscurely to distinctly toothed, 15–90 mm. long, 9–64 mm. broad; lateral leaflets similar but smaller and somewhat unequal-based; median petiolule or central rhachis 5–32 mm. long, longer than the petiole; other petiolules up to 22 mm. long; petiole 4–22 mm. long.. Tendrils simple.. Dioecious.. Male flowers solitary; peduncles solitary, 6–80 mm. long, but often crowded on the terminal part of the stem or on young stems arising from the nodes of older wood, the internodes and leaves of these parts being very reduced and the peduncles thus appearing racemose or fasciculate, each bearing an apical bract; bract sessile, suborbicular-apiculate, 1.5–16 mm. long, 2–24 mm. broad, always exceeding 8 × 13 mm. when the leaves are mostly or all 9-or more-foliolate; pedicel 1–7 mm. long; receptacle-tube broadly campanulate, 2–4 mm. long; lobes triangular or broadly ovate, obtuse or rounded, blackish with hyaline margins, 3–7.5 mm. long; corolla yellow with dark greenish to black eye; petals obovate, rounded, 11–22 mm. long, 9–16 mm. broad, 2 with basal incurved scales; stamens 3, all with scales inside at the base; thecae triplicate.. Female flowers with stalk 14–28 mm. long bearing a small bract in the lower half; ovary cylindrical, glabrous, 5–8 mm. long, 1.5–3.5 mm. across, obscurely sinuate-ridged; receptacle-lobes ovate-triangular, 3–4 mm. long; petals 12–13 mm. long, 5.5–7 mm. broad.. Fruit on a 20–30 mm. long stalk, ovoid, rather pointed but not beaked, terete or obscurely ribbed, 40–63 mm. long, 28–35 mm. across, bright red with paler spots, the pericarp separating from the whitish pulp by irregular valves.. Seeds when fresh with slimy whitish fleshy sheaths, ovate-rectangular in outline, 13 × 7 × 3.5 mm.; testa sculptured; margins narrowly grooved.

It is a tropical plant. It can grow in salty and sandy soils. It is often over limestone materials. It grows in woodland and near watercourses. It grows between 35-1,560 m above sea level. It can grow in arid places.

The fruit are eaten raw.