18 Facts About Cucurbita

Fruits of the genus Cucurbita are good sources of nutrients, such as vitamin A and vitamin C, among other nutrients according to species.

Typical cultivated Cucurbita species has five-lobed or palmately divided leaves with long petioles, with the leaves alternately arranged on the stem.

Botanists classify the Cucurbita fruit as a pepo, which is a special type of berry derived from an inferior ovary, with a thick outer wall or rind with hypanthium tissue forming an exocarp around the ovary, and a fleshy interior composed of mesocarp and endocarp.

Cucurbita was formally described in a way that meets the requirements of modern botanical nomenclature by Linnaeus in his Genera Plantarum, the fifth edition of 1754 in conjunction with the 1753 first edition of Species Plantarum.

The following cladogram of Cucurbita phylogeny is based upon a 2002 study of mitochondrial DNA by Sanjur and colleagues.

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Cucurbita plants grown in the spring tend to grow larger than those grown in the autumn.

Cucurbita suggested that the crookneck, ornamental gourd, and scallop are early variants and that the acorn is a cross between the scallop and the pumpkin.

Ancestral species of the genus Cucurbita were present in the Americas before the arrival of humans, and are native to the Americas.

Recent genomic studies support the idea that the Cucurbita genus underwent a whole-genome duplication event, increasing their number of chromosomes and accelerating the rate at which their genomes evolve compared to other cucurbits.

Genetic studies of the mitochondrial gene nad1 show there were at least six independent domestication events of Cucurbita separating domestic species from their wild ancestors.

Recent genomic studies suggest that Cucurbita argyrosperma was domesticated in Mexico, in the region that is currently known as the state of Jalisco.

Cucurbita species are some of the most important of those, with the various species being prepared and eaten in many ways.

Cucurbita species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the cabbage moth, Hypercompe indecisa, and the turnip moth .

Cucurbita can be susceptible to the pest Bemisia argentifolii as well as aphids, cucumber beetles, squash bug, the squash vine borer, and the two-spotted spidermite .

Species in the genus Cucurbita are susceptible to some types of mosaic virus including: cucumber mosaic virus, papaya ringspot virus-cucurbit strain, squash mosaic virus, tobacco ringspot virus, watermelon mosaic virus, and zucchini yellow mosaic virus .

Long before European contact, Cucurbita had been a major food source for the native peoples of the Americas, and the species became an important food for European settlers, including the Pilgrims, even featuring at the first Thanksgiving.

Cucurbita have been used in various cultures as folk remedies.

Cucurbita fruits including pumpkins and marrows are celebrated in festivals in countries such as Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Britain, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States.