Cucurbita moschata

Duchesne

Essai Hist. Nat. Courges, 7, 15. 1786.

Common names: Butternut or Tahitian squash golden cushaw calabaza neck or West Indian or Seminole or large cheese or Long Island cheese or Kentucky field or Dickinson pumpkin Tennessee sweet potato
Introduced
Synonyms: Pepo moschata (Duchesne) Britton
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 6. Treatment on page 57. Mentioned on page 49, 50, 53.

Plants annual; roots taproots or fibrous. Stems creeping or climbing, rooting adventitiously at nodes, to 10+ m, villous-hirsute with mixture of longer, thick, vitreous hairs with conspicuous crosswalls and puberulent understory of much shorter hairs, without pustulate-based hairs; tendrils 3–5-branched 1.5–8 cm above base, glabrous, eglandular. Leaves: petiole 4–25 (–40) cm, villous-hirsute with mixture of longer, thick, vitreous hairs with conspicuous crosswalls 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. Peduncles in fruit 5-ribbed, abruptly expanded at point of fruit attachment, hardened, woody. Flowers: 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. Pepos 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. Seeds 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. 2n = 40.


Phenology: Flowering May–Oct.
Habitat: Oak-pine woods, abandoned agricultural fields, roadsides, disturbed sites
Elevation: 0–100 m

Distribution

V6 93-distribution-map.jpg

Introduced; Fla., Ga., Ky., La., Miss., N.C., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va., w South America, also in Mexico, West Indies, Central America, elsewhere in South America (French Guiana), elsewhere in South America (Guyana), elsewhere in South America (Surinam), Pacific Islands (Galapagos Islands)

Discussion

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).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.

No values specified."thick" is not a number. "thick" is not a number.

... more about "Cucurbita moschata"
puberulent +  and glabrous +
distinct +  and connate +
Guy L. Nesom +
Duchesne +
cordate +
25 cm250 mm <br />0.25 m <br /> (30 cm300 mm <br />0.3 m <br />) +
white-mottled +
5 cm50 mm <br />0.05 m <br /> (25 cm250 mm <br />0.25 m <br />) +
3-5(-7)-lobed;suborbiculate;broadly ovate depressed-ovate or reniform +
tubular +, saucer--shaped +, campanulate +  and rotate +
Butternut or Tahitian squash +, golden cushaw +, calabaza +, neck or West Indian or Seminole or large cheese or Long Island cheese or Kentucky field or Dickinson pumpkin +  and Tennessee sweet potato +
tubular-campanulate +
5 cm50 mm <br />0.05 m <br /> (7 cm70 mm <br />0.07 m <br />) +
Fla. +, Ga. +, Ky. +, La. +, Miss. +, N.C. +, Pa. +, S.C. +, Tenn. +, Tex. +, Va. +, w South America +, also in Mexico +, West Indies +, Central America +, elsewhere in South America (French Guiana) +, elsewhere in South America (Guyana) +, elsewhere in South America (Surinam) +  and Pacific Islands (Galapagos Islands) +
0–100 m +
furrowed +  and echinate +
dehiscent +  and indehiscent +
bristly +, smooth +, hairy +  and glabrous +
tuberculate +  and muricate +
fleshy +  and hard +
connate +  and distinct +
yellow +  and light or bright orange +
staminate +, from different axils than staminate +  and pistillate +
cultivated +
stipitate;peltate +
Oak-pine woods, abandoned agricultural fields, roadsides, disturbed sites +
pustulate-based +
perennial +
dioecious +  and monoecious +
0.5 cm5 mm <br />0.005 m <br /> (0.8 cm8 mm <br />0.008 m <br />) +
umbellate;subumbellate +
solitary +, corymbose +, fasciculate +, racemose +  and paniculate +
petiolate +, estipulate +  and simple +
ovate;broadly triangular or broadly obovate +
golden-yellow +  and silvery +
undulate +, serrulate-apiculate +  and denticulate or mucronulate +
raised-thickened +
not +  and differentiated +
elongate-whitened +
woody +  and hardened +
with rounded ribs +  and smooth +
40 cm400 mm <br />0.4 m <br /> (120 cm1,200 mm <br />1.2 m <br />) +
10 cm100 mm <br />0.1 m <br /> (40 cm400 mm <br />0.4 m <br />) +
induplicate-valvate +  and imbricate +
9 cm90 mm <br />0.09 m <br /> (12 cm120 mm <br />0.12 m <br />) +
yellow;orange +
pubescent +  and puberulent +
broadly ovate;oblong-ovate oblongelliptic triangular triangular-ovate or lanceolate-ovate +
2.5 cm25 mm <br />0.025 m <br /> (9 cm90 mm <br />0.09 m <br />) +
25 cm250 mm <br />0.25 m <br /> (40 cm400 mm <br />0.4 m <br />) +
puberulent;villous-hirsute +
4 cm40 mm <br />0.04 m <br /> (25 cm250 mm <br />0.25 m <br />) +
Flowering May–Oct. +
Essai Hist. Nat. Courges, +
rounded +
arillate +  and winged +
whitish +  and cream or light-brown +
ovate-elliptic +  and elliptic or obovate +
0.8 cm8 mm <br />0.008 m <br /> (2.1 cm21 mm <br />0.021 m <br />) +
lanceolate +
1.5 cm15 mm <br />0.015 m <br /> (2.5 cm25 mm <br />0.025 m <br />) +
Introduced +
wartlike +
climbing +  and creeping +
sprawling +  and prostrate +
puberulent;villous-hirsute +
0 cm0 mm <br />0 m <br /> (1,000 cm10,000 mm <br />10 m <br />) +
slightly rough to punctate-sculptured +  and smooth +
hairy +, densely hirsute +  and hirsutulous +
punctate-sculptured +
Pepo moschata +
Cucurbita moschata +
Cucurbita +
species +
eglandular +  and 3-5-branched +
1.5 cm15 mm <br />0.015 m <br /> (8 cm80 mm <br />0.08 m <br />) +