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Cucurbita
Also called Squash, Gourds, Marrows, Pumpkin, Squash
Cucurbita is a genus of vining, herbaceous plants in the gourd family, including the squashes, pumpkins and ornamental gourds grown for their fruit and seeds. Cultivated forms need steady moisture and plenty of sun, while the wild perennial relatives are drought tolerant.
Cucurbita (Latin for 'gourd') is a genus, native to the Andes and Mesoamerica, of herbaceous fruits in the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae (also known as cucurbits or cucurbi). Five edible species are grown and consumed for their flesh and seeds. They are variously known as squash, pumpkin, or gourd, depending on species, variety, and local parlance. Other kinds of gourd, also called bottle gourds, are native to Africa and belong to the genus Lagenaria, which is in the same family and subfamily as Cucurbita, but in a different tribe; their young fruits are eaten much like those of the Cucurbita species.
There is debate about the taxonomy of the genus, and the number of accepted species varies from 13 to 30. The five domesticated species are Cucurbita argyrosperma, C. ficifolia, C. maxima, C. moschata, and C.
Cucurbitin is a naturally occurring amino acid and carboxy pyrrolidine present in raw Cucurbita seeds. It retards the development of parasitic flukes when administered to infected host mice, although the effect is seen only if administration begins immediately after infection.
Cucurmosin is a ribosome inactivating protein found in the flesh and seed of Cucurbita, notably Cucurbita moschata.
The ancestral species of the genus Cucurbita were present in the Americas before the arrival of humans, and are native to the Americas. The likely center of origin is southern Mexico, spreading south through what is now known as Mesoamerica, into South America, and north to what is now the southwestern United States. Evolutionarily speaking, the genus is relatively recent in origin, dating back to the Holocene, whereas the family Cucurbitaceae, represented in Bryonia-like seeds, dates to the Paleocene. Recent genomic studies support the idea that the Cucurbita genus underwent a whole-genome duplication event, increasing the number of chromosomes and accelerating the rate at which their genomes evolve relative to other cucurbits. No species within the genus is entirely genetically isolated. C. moschata can intercross with all Cucurbita species, though the hybrid offspring may not be fertile unless they become polyploid.
Japanese Pie Pumpkin · Coyote Melon · Coyote Gourd · Cucurbita cylindrata · Fingerleaf gourd · Ecuadorian Squash · Figleaf gourd · Missouri gourd · Cucurbita galeottii · Bitter Pumpkin · Marten Gourd · Jarrahdale pumpkin
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cucurbita 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.
