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Momordica cochinchinensis
Also called Gac melon, Balsam Pear, Balsampear, Chinese Bitter Cucumber, Chinese Cucumber, Giant Spine Gourd, Spiny Bitter Cucumber
Gac is a spiny, climbing vine in the gourd family, grown in Southeast Asia for its vivid orange-red arils used in food and traditional medicine. It is dioecious, so you need both male and female plants to get fruit.
Gac, from the Vietnamese gấc (pronounced [ɣək˦˥]), scientific name Momordica cochinchinensis, is a species of plant in the melon and cucumber family Cucurbitaceae native to countries throughout Southeast Asia and to Queensland, Australia. It is notable for its vivid orange-reddish color resulting from a mix of beta-carotene and lycopene.
As gac plant is dioecious, both male and female plants are needed; hence, farmers must have at least one corresponding male plant growing in or around the gardens for the fruit-bearing female plants to be pollinated. When grown from seed, the ratio of male to female plants is unpredictable.
Pollination may be facilitated by insects, but hand pollination allows for better fruit yield. An alternative method is to graft female material onto the main shoot of a male plant.
Gac has been commonly used in its native countries, mainly as food and traditional medicine. Its use as a folk medicine dates back over centuries in China and Vietnam. Gac seeds, known as mù biē zǐ (meaning 'wooden turtle seed'), are used for a variety of internal and topical purposes in traditional medicine.
Southern balsampear · Balsampear · Balsampear · Balsam Apple
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Gac by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
