Abstract
Momordica is a monophyletic genus that originated in tropical Africa and the Asian species are considered the result of one long-distance dispersal event that occurred about 19 million years ago. Monoecious species evolved from dioecious species seven times independently, always in Africa and mostly in the Savanna region with low population densities. M. dioica is indigenous to India and possibly evolved in Central India. M. sahyadrica is more advanced and might have evolved from M. dioica in the Western Ghats and may be considered as a neo-endemic (Behera et al. 2011). Morphological and cytological analysis suggests that M. subangulata subsp. renigera is a segmental allopolyploid of M. dioica and M. cochinchinensis genomes. Though Momordica is one of the large genera in the family Cucurbitaceae, M. charantia is the only widely cultivated crop in the genus. M. dioica, M. cochinchinensis and M. subangulata subsp. renigera are under domestication interface while other species are purely wild. The putative areas for domestication of M. charantia proposed by various workers include southern China, eastern India and south-western India. The natural geographic distribution of wild edible Momordica was investigated and characteristics of distribution in India analysed based on a study of herbarium sheets in major Indian herbaria and passport data of germplasm collections. It is distinct from the earlier reported distribution as a new taxa based on revision of the genus has been incorporated and maps plotted based on corrected herbarium specimens and field spotting. Areas of higher concentration have been marked for individual taxon.
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Bharathi, L.K., John, K.J. (2013). Origin, Domestication and Distribution. In: Momordica genus in Asia - An Overview. Springer, India. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1032-0_3
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