| Bengali Name : | করল্লা, করল্লা, উচ্ছে |
| Common Name : | Bitter squash, Bitter melon, Bitter gourd. |
| Botanical Name : | Momordica charantia |
| Family : | Cucurbitaceae(Pumpkin family) |
| Photo Taken : | >Bangladesh |
Bitter squash is a vegetable plant. In our country Bangladesh we call this as Korolla (করল্লা) or simply Korola (করলা). In Sanskrit it is known as Karvella. English people know this in many names but bitter squash, bitter melon, etc are most popular names. Botanical name is Momordica charantia from the plant family Cucurbitaceae. This is widely cultivated at Asia, Africa, and Caribbean region.
Bitter squash plant is a crawling vine that can grow up to five meter. Leafs are arranged alternately around the vine. Flowers are bright yellow and male, female flowers are different. It has five separate petals. Female flower has the ovary at the base of the flower. Fruits are green initially, but changes into orange when mature. It has seeds having bright red pulps. The whole fruit is bitter in taste.
Despite of bitter in taste this vegetable is very popular in our country Bangladesh. We cultivate this in a large scale more or less throughout the whole country. Fried Bitter squash with potato is one of my favorites. Some people also make curry using this (specially with some small fishes). Its bitterness can easily control the glucose of blood, so it's popular amongst the diabetics patients. It can be useful against the worm as it is very bitter in taste.
Palm like leaf of the plant.
A Bitter squash hanging in the vine.
Photos of this article were taken from Rupganj of Narayanganj during February 2015, and from Jhenaidah (ঝিনাইদহ) during 2012.
This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icwow.blogspot.com/
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