Dear Ulhas and All, The plant in question is a commonly grown cucurbit vegetable locally called 'Chuchchey Karela'. I have lived here over 20 years and nobody calls it sweet karela . Chuchchey in Nepali means 'bent' or 'curved'. The fruit is hooked at the tip, its black seeds are somewhat like that of bitter gourd and hence it is called 'Karela'. But it is not sweet at all. Its like many people calling fresh water as sweet water compared to salt water.
It grows prolifically around 1500 to about 2400m almost throughout Sikkim around this time. We commonly consume the fruits and mom-in-law taught me to pluck tender leaves as vegetable. I tasted the raw fruits and found them very edible, like young cucumbers and began plucking them at that stage so we could eat them whole. But most are sold in the market as mature vegetable and people have to split them open, de-seed them and cook along with potatoes usually. They are as cheap as another prolific cucurbit that literally infests every shrub and tree around this time of year locally called 'Iskus' *Sechium edule* or Chow-chow to Bangaloreans. Check out * http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sechium_edule *and * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chayote *I tried unsuccessfully to find pictures of Gomphogyne cissiformis as suggested by Dr. Gurcharan. It is also *not Momordica cochinchinensis*, another local vegetable. Will check up and get back. Kind regards, Usha * *On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 4:18 PM, Ulhas <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear Usha > > Can you throw some light on this plant / vegetable from Sikkim? > > Best wishes > > Ulhas > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: "J.M. Garg" <[email protected]> > Date: Oct 13, 12:54 pm > Subject: Fwd: [indiantreepix:18961] Re: sweet karela > To: indiantreepix > > > Forwarding again for Id assistance pl. > > Earlier relevant feedback: > *"Nabha ji > you seem to have found a and photographed one of the least known > plants. > Meetha karela, Bhaat karela, Kheksa, Padora, Kakaura, Kaksa all names > of > spinegourd, A plant with many virtues, and botanically Momordica > dioicaRoxb. > * > * Your plant is is not clearly this species. There is no > information on > the net, not even common names of what I think is your plant, perhaps > Gomphogyne > cissiformis Griff, growing in Kumaon, Sikkim and Lachoong. > You have to confirm the size of fruit (length), size of seed, and > whether latter has small tubercles (teeth like structures) at ends.* > * The plant is very poory known, and my identification is purely on > the > basis of scanty information. It needs critical scrutiny by other > members. > Dr. Gurcharan Singh" > * > *"Gurcharan ji, > thanks for your feed back. I havn't eaten the fruits yet so i can take > more > fotos and send them here. > Well. sweet karela was also not known to me, till ivisited sikkim. It > was > sold in one shop where we stopped for Lunch and if i remember ok, the > hotel > and the sho were on the main road to Gangtok along the Teesta river. > Perhaps > there are people from Sikkim or Bengal in the group who may have some > more > ideas. > The fruits are longish, the tip is bent a bit, and the fruits have a > few (3 > or 4) thorn like things, but very thin like hair perhaps 1 to 1,5 cm > long > Here one can read about sweet karela **http://www.livemint.com/ > 2008/10/31232217/The-secrets-of-Sikkim.htmlbut*<http://www.livemint.com/%0A2008/10/31232217/The-secrets-of-Sikkim.htmlbut*> > <http:// > www.livemint.com/2008/10/31232217/The-secrets-of-Sikkim.htmlbut> > * the picture is not of s.k. > in **www.avani-kumaon.org/annual_reports/anrep04-05 > (E).docthere*<http://www.avani-kumaon.org/annual_reports/anrep04-05 > (E).docthere> > * a ref to s.k. > Perhaps there are people from Sikkim or Bengal in the group who may > have > some more ideas. > Regards > Nalini"* > ** > *"Nabha ji > Your first link did not open. The second link leads to page that lists > Sweet > karela, but as I told you earlier, most people know sweet karela as > Momordica > dioica. Your plant is much different from this.* > *Dr. Gurcharan Singh"* > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: nabha meghani <[email protected]> > Date: 2009/9/20 > Subject: [indiantreepix:18961] Re: sweet karela > To: Devendra Bhardwaj <[email protected]>, indiantreepix < > > [email protected]> > Cc: [email protected] > > Hallo, > here are some more pictures of sweet karela. > After waiting for a while for some replies, I prepared the karelas > yesterday. They were not 'sweet', but they were also not bitter. > I am still alive. But I think, I wud eat only a few of them at a time. > I don't know, if my plants survive the winter. Will see. > > Reghards > Nalini > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Devendra Bhardwaj" <[email protected]> > To: "indiantreepix" <[email protected]> > Cc: "nabha meghani" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]> > Sent: Sunday, September 20, 2009 2:27 AM > Subject: Fw: [indiantreepix:17814] sweet karela > > Forwarding again for Id confirmation pl. > Earlier relevant feedback: > > Nabha ji > you seem to have found a and photographed one of the least known > plants. > Meetha karela, Bhaat karela, Kheksa, Padora, Kakaura, Kaksa all names > of > spinegourd, A plant with many virtues, and botanically Momordica > dioica > Roxb. > > Your plant is is not clearly this species. There is no > information on > the net, not even common names of what I think is your plant, perhaps > Gomphogyne cissiformis Griff, growing in Kumaon, Sikkim and Lachoong. > You have to confirm the size of fruit (length), size of seed, and > whether latter has small tubercles (teeth like structures) at ends. > > The plant is very poory known, and my identification is purely on > the > basis of scanty information. It needs critical scrutiny by other > members. > > Dr. Gurcharan Singh > Associate Professor > SGTB Khalsa College > University of Delhi, Delhi > India > > Gurcharan ji, > thanks for your feed back. I havn't eaten the fruits yet so i can take > more > fotos and send them here. > Well. sweet karela was also not known to me, till ivisited sikkim. It > was > sold in one shop where we stopped for Lunch and if i remember ok, the > hotel > and the sho were on the main road to Gangtok along the Teesta river. > Perhaps > there are people from Sikkim or Bengal in the group who may have some > more > ideas. > The fruits are longish, the tip is bent a bit, and the fruits have a > few (3 > or 4) thorn like things, but very thin like hair perhaps 1 to 1,5 cm > long > Here one can read about sweet karelahttp:// > www.livemint.com/2008/10/31232217/The-secrets-of-Sikkim.htmlbut > the > picture is not of s.k. > inwww.avani-kumaon.org/annual_reports/anrep04-05(E).docthere<http://inwww.avani-kumaon.org/annual_reports/anrep04-05%28E%29.docthere>a > ref to > s.k.. > > Perhaps there are people from Sikkim or Bengal in the group who may > have > some more ideas. > Regards > Nalini > > Nabha ji > Your first link did not open. The second link leads to page that lists > Sweet > karela, but as I told you earlier, most people know sweet karela as > Momordica dioica. Your plant is much different from this. > > Dr. Gurcharan Singh > Associate Professor > SGTB Khalsa College > University of Delhi, Delhi > India > > --- On Mon, 7/9/09, nabha meghani <[email protected]> wrote: > > > From: nabha meghani <[email protected]> > > Subject: [indiantreepix:17814] sweet karela > > To: "indiantreepix" <[email protected]> > > Date: Monday, 7 September, 2009, 2:23 AM > > > Hallo, > > in Feb 2009 I visited > > Sikkim. One Sabjiwala > > gave me some seeds of sweet karela. I put them in a pot in > > April. > > In the beginning it did > > not want to grow, the > > summer was very dry. Now it is raining a lot and the > > Karelas are getting > > bigger everyday. > > I shall be able to > > harvest 7 Karelas > > now. > > I shall enjoy eating > > karelasabji and > > remembering my trip to Sikkim. > > Until my visit to Sikkim I > > did not know that > > Karelas are also sweet. I knew only the bitter > > ones. > > Does this Plant have an > > ID? > > > Regards > > Nalini > > See the Web's breaking stories, chosen by people like you. > Check > out Yahoo! Buzz.http://in.buzz.yahoo.com/ > > -- > With regards, > J.M.Garg ([email protected])http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1 > 'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna' > Image Resource of thousands of my images of Birds, Butterflies, Flora > etc. > (arranged alphabetically & place-wise):http://commons.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Category:J.M.Garg<http://commons.wikimedia.org/%0Awiki/Category:J.M.Garg> > For learning about Indian Flora, visit/ join Google e-group- > Indiantreepix:http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix?hl=en > > > > Sweet-Karela-seeds-4602-k.JPG > 59KViewDownload > > Sweet-Karela-4594-k.JPG > 68KViewDownload > > Sweet-Karela-4598-k.JPG > 93KViewDownload- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - -- Usha Ganguli-Lachungpa Sr. Research Officer (WL) Dept. of Forest, Env. & WL Mgmt. Government of Sikkim Deorali, Gangtok 737102 Tel/Fax:91-3592-280402; Cell:094340-25273 [email protected] [email protected] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "indiantreepix" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
