Fruits & Vegetables week: Pumkins and Squashes

[Gurcharan Singh]

The names pumkins and squashes are very commonly used names with hundreds of cultivars with little or no fixity with species. They mostly all belong to Cucurbita, but well belong to any of the common species: C. maxima, C. moschata, C. pepo, C. mixta or C. filicifolia. The leaves, flowers and fruit shape and colour rarely help in identification. The only reliable feature for identification is the stalk of mature fruit, especially at the point of attachment to the fruit base. Here are some pointers:

Cucurbita maxuma: Stalk soft and spongy, not ridged, not enlarged at apex

C. moschata: Stalk hard, angled, expanded at apex, but angles not individually attached to fruit base.

C. pepo: stalk hard, strongly angled, especially near apex with each finger attached to the fruit base 

C. mixta: Stalk hard, angled, enlarged by hard cork

Here is a useful link

http://www.annadana.com/actu/new_news.cgi?id_news=70

--
Dr. Gurcharan Singh
Retired  Associate Professor
SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
Phone: 011-25518297  Mob: 9810359089
http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/