Cucurbita maxima
Cucurbita moschata
Queensland blue or Atlantic giant or Mammoth pumpkin, winter marrow, winter or Hubbard or blue Hubbard or golden Hubbard or Turk's turban or banana or Queensland blue or buttercup or Hokkaido squash, winter squash
butternut squash, calabaza, crookneck squash, golden cushaw, neck or West Indian or seminole or large cheese or long island cheese or Kentucky field or dickinson pumpkin, Tahitian squash, Tennessee sweet potato
creeping or climbing, rooting adventitiously at nodes, to 10+ m, villous-hirsute with mixture of longer, thick, vitreous hairs with conspicuous cross-walls and puberulent understory of much shorter hairs, without pustulate-based hairs;
tendrils 3–5-branched 1.5–8 cm above base, glabrous, eglandular.
petiole 4–25(–40) cm, villous-hirsute with mixture of longer, thick, vitreous hairs with conspicuous cross-walls and puberulent understory of much shorter hairs, without pustulate-based hairs;
blade sometimes white-mottled abaxially, suborbiculate to broadly ovate, depressed-ovate, or reniform, shallowly 3–5(–7)-lobed, 5–25 × (8–)10–25(–30) cm, broader than long, base cordate, lobes ovate to broadly triangular or broadly obovate, midveins of leaf lobes not distinctly elongate-whitened, margins closely serrate-denticulate or serrulate-apiculate to denticulate or mucronulate, surfaces densely hirsute to hirsutulous abaxially, less densely hairy adaxially, eglandular.
in fruit terete, not prominently ribbed, expanded along whole length, not abruptly expanded at point of fruit attachment, relatively soft and corky-thickened.
in fruit 5-ribbed, abruptly expanded at point of fruit attachment, hardened, woody.
hypanthium campanulate, 20–25 mm;
sepals subulate to linear, 5–20 mm;
corolla yellow to orange-yellow, campanulate, 5–7(–8) cm;
anther filaments glabrous;
ovary pubescent.
hypanthium cupulate, 5–8 mm;
sepals narrowly lanceolate, distally foliaceous, 15–25 mm;
corolla yellow, tubular-campanulate, 5–7 cm;
anther filaments glabrous or sparsely puberulent at base;
ovary pubescent.
whitish to gray or pale brown, suborbiculate to broadly elliptic or obovate, 12–22(–32) mm, margins raised-thickened or not, sometimes slightly darkened, surfaces smooth or slightly rough.
whitish to cream or light brown with golden-yellow to silvery margins, ovate-elliptic to elliptic or obovate, 8–21 mm, margins raised-thickened, ± undulate, surface ± punctate-sculptured.
green to gray-green with cream stripes or mottling, golden yellow to orange, dark purplish green or bluish, blackish purple, or white to grayish, globose to depressed-globose to ovoid or obovoid, oblong-cylindric, or flattened-cylindric, 10–40 cm, smooth, flesh yellow to orange, not bitter.
evenly light or dark green or cream-speckled to evenly light or dark brown, speckled or not, or wholly white, globose or depressed-globose to ovoid, conic, cylindric, pyriform, or lageniform, 10–40(–120) cm, usually smooth or with rounded ribs, rarely with small, raised, wartlike spots, flesh yellow to light or bright orange to greenish, lightly to very sweet.
= 40.
= 40.
Cucurbita maxima
Cucurbita moschata
Cucurbita andreana Naudin, a wild species native to Argentina and Bolivia, hybridizes readily with C. maxima and is its ancestor (O. I. Sanjur et al. 2002); it sometimes is recognized as C. maxima subsp. andreana (Naudin) Filov.
Some fruits of Cucurbita maxima have a high sugar content and are used for making pies, and they are popular as a soup, especially in Brazil and Africa.
All of the giant pumpkins in weigh-off contests are derived from Cucurbita maxima, as are some of the Halloween pumpkins. In 1904, the largest pumpkin was 403 pounds, and winners increased relatively little to 459 pounds in 1980. A rapid increase in size began in 1981, with the champion at 493.5 pounds; from this individual’s lineage came seeds for the Atlantic Giant cultivar, which has contributed since to winners burgeoning in size. The first giant pumpkin over 1000 pounds (1061 pounds) was grown in 1996; by 2009 the winner was 1725 pounds and in 2010, 1810 pounds.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Cucurbita moschata is the primary squash of lowland, humid, tropical and subtropical areas throughout the world. It seems likely that it occurs at least as a waif in more areas than indicated in currently available databases of invasive species.
Fruits of Cucurbita moschata, especially the cheese pumpkins, are favorites for making pumpkin pie. Compared to a Halloween “jack-o-lantern” (a “pepo” pumpkin), flesh of a Moschata pumpkin is more richly colored, higher in nutrients and sugars, and has a denser, smoother-grained flesh. The “cheese” name alludes to the pumpkin’s resemblance to a wheel of cheddar.
Cucurbita moschata has sometimes been cited as C. moschata (Duchesne ex Lamarck) Duchesne ex Poiret, based on C. pepo var. moschata Duchesne ex Lamarck, but the epithet appeared first at specific rank, slightly earlier than in the work by Lamarck.
The wild ancestor of Cucurbita moschata is unknown but mitochondrial DNA data combined with other information suggest that it will be found in lowland northern South America (O. I. Sanjur et al. 2002).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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