Scientific name Cucurbita pepo L.

Alias wild rice squash, white squash, squash, American squash

Category of Cucurbitaceae (Cucurbitaceae), squash

Origin Origin Originally from the southern part of North America, now widely cultivated.

Morphology annual herbaceous vine (trailing), there are dwarf, semi-trailing, trailing three strains. Most varieties of the main vine dominance is obvious, the side of the vine less and weak. Length of main vine: dwarf varieties have short internodes, and the length of vine is usually below 50㎝, sometimes up to 1m in solar greenhouse (due to long growing period); semi-trailing varieties are usually about 80cm; trailing varieties are usually up to several meters long. It is a climbing vine with leaf tendrils, but it is often creeping (some dwarf varieties are erect).

Single leaf, large, palmately parted, alternate (dwarf varieties densely alternate), leaf surface rough and thorny. Petiole long and hollow. Some varieties have leaves of varying shades of green, with silvery-white spots near the veins.

Flowers unisexual, monoecious. Flowers solitary in leaf axils, bright yellow or orange-yellow. Male flower corolla bell-shaped, the base of the calyx to form a perianth tube, pollen grains large and heavy, sticky, the wind can not blow away, can only rely on insect pollination. Female flowers ovary inferior, with stamens but degenerate, there is a ring nectary. The rate of unisexual fruiting is low, and artificial pollination is required in winter and early spring when there are few insects. Both male and female flowers initially start to differentiate from the floral primordium in the leaf axils, appearing in the order of sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels from the outside to the inside. However, when male flowers form flower buds, the carpels stop developing and the stamens are developed; when female flowers form flower buds, the stamens stop developing and the carpels are developed, which in turn form the pistil and the ovary.

Gourd fruit, the shape of a variety of cylindrical, oval and long cylindrical. Some varieties of young and old ripe melon skin color is the same, some are different. The skin color of young gourd is white, white-green, golden yellow, dark green, dark green or white-green; the skin color of old ripe gourd is white, creamy white, yellow, orange-red or yellow-green.

There are 300-400 seeds per fruit, and the seeds are white or light yellow, long ovate, smooth seed coat, and the weight of 1,000 grains is 130-200 g. The life span is generally 4-5 years, and the upper limit of production and utilization is 2-3 years.