Squash (plant)

Squash
Yellow squash
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Cucurbitales Family: Cucurbitaceae Genus: Cucurbita Species: C. maxima - hubbard squash, buttercup squash C. mixta - cushaw squash C. moschata - butternut squash C. pepo - most pumpkins, acorn squash, summer squash, zucchini

Squash is the common name used for four species in the genus Cucurbita of the gourd family Cucurbitaceae: C. pepo, C. maxima, C. mixta, and C. moschata. These plants, which originated in the Americas, are tendril-bearing plants characterized by hairy stems, unisexual flowers, and a fleshy fruit with a leathery rind that is a type of false berry called a pepo. The name squash also is used for the edible fruit of any of these plants, which can vary considerably in shape, color, and size, and is consumed as a vegetable.

In North America, squash is loosely grouped into summer squash or winter squash, as well as autumn squash (another name is cheese squash) depending on whether they are harvested as immature fruits (summer squash) or mature fruits (autumn squash or winter squash). Gourds are from the same family as squashes. Well known types of squash include the pumpkin and zucchini.

Description

Cucurbitaceae is a plant family commonly known as gourds or cucurbits and includes crops like cucumbers, squashes (including pumpkins), luffas, melons and watermelons. The family is predominantly distributed around the tropics, where those with edible fruits were amongst the earliest cultivated plants in both the Old and New Worlds.

Most of the plants in this family are annual vines but there are also woody lianas, thorny shrubs, and trees (Dendrosicyos). Many species have large, yellow or white flowers. The stems are hairy and pentangular. tendrils are present at 90' to the leaf petioles at nodes. Leaves are exstipulate alternate simple palmately lobed or palmately compound.The flowers are unisexual, with male and female flowers usually on different plants (dioecious), or less common on the same plant (monoecious). The female flowers have inferior ovaries. The fruit is often a kind of berry called a pepo. An epigynous berry or false berry is an accessory fruit found in certain plant species with an inferior ovary, distinguishing it from a true berry. In these species other parts of the flower (including the basal parts of the sepals, petals, and stamens) can ripen along with the ovary, forming the false berry. The fruit of Cucurbitaceae is a false berry called a pepo.

Archaeological evidence suggests that squash may have been first cultivated in Mesoamerica some 8,000 to 10,000 years ago [1][2], but may have been independently cultivated elsewhere, albeit later [3]. Squash was one of the "Three Sisters" planted by Native Americans. The Three Sisters were the three main indigenous plants used for agriculture: maize (corn), beans, and squash. These were usually planted together, with the cornstalk providing support for the climbing beans, and shade for the squash. The squash vines provided ground cover to limit weeds. The beans provided nitrogen fixing for all three crops.

Squashes generally refer to four species of the genus Cucurbita native to the New World, also called marrows depending on variety or the nationality of the speaker.

Summer squashes, including young vegetable marrows (such as zucchini [also known as courgette], pattypan and yellow crookneck) are harvested during the growing season, while the skin is still tender and the fruit relatively small, they are consumed almost immediately and require little or no cooking.

Winter squashes (such as butternut, Hubbard, buttercup, ambercup, acorn, spaghetti squash and pumpkin) are harvested at maturity, generally the end of summer, cured to further harden the skin, and stored in a cool place for eating later. They generally require longer cooking time than summer squashes. (Note: Although the term winter squash is used here to differentiate from summer squash, it is also commonly used as a synonym for Cucurbita maxima.)

The squash fruit is classified as a pepo by botanists, which is a special type of berry with a thick outer wall or rind formed from hypanthium tissue fused to the exocarp; the fleshy interior is composed of mesocarp and endocarp. The pepo, derived from an inferior ovary, is characteristic of the Squash Family (Cucurbitaceae).

In addition to the fruit, other parts of the plant are edible. Squash seeds can be eaten directly, ground into paste, or (particularly for pumpkins) pressed for vegetable oil. The shoots, leaves, and tendrils can be eaten as greens. The blossoms are an important part of native American cooking and are also used in many other parts of the world.

Pollination

Bee pollinating a zucchini squash

As with all other members of the family, the flowers come in pollen-bearing male form, and the ovary-bearing female form, with both forms being present on the plant. Squash has historically been pollinated by the native North American squash bee Peponapis pruinosa, and related species, but this bee and its relatives have declined, probably due to pesticide sensitivity, and most commercial plantings are pollinated by European honey bees today. One hive per acre (4,000 m² per hive) is recommended by the US Department of Agriculture. Gardeners with a shortage of bees often have to hand pollinate. Inadequately pollinated female squash flowers will usually start growing but abort before full development. Many gardeners blame various fungal diseases for the aborted fruit, but the fix proves to be better pollination not fungicide.

Squash species

Varieties of squash

Four species of the genus Cucurbita are called squash or pumpkins rather indiscriminately.

• C. maxima includes the large winter squash (such as Hubbard and Banana) and some large pumpkins, and numerous smaller varieties such as Buttercup and Mooregold. On this species the peduncle (fruit stem) is spongy and swollen, not ridged.
• C. pepo includes the small pie pumpkins, standard field pumpkins, acorn squash, vegetable spaghetti, zucchini, summer crookneck squash, pattypan and most other summer squashes.
• C. moschata includes butternut squash, among others
• C. mixta includes the cushaw varieties.

While squashes and pumpkins are notorious for producing hybrids when grown within pollinator range of each other, the different species do not naturally hybridize with each other.

Culinary uses

Summer squash Nutritional value per 100 g
Energy 20 kcal   70 kJ
Carbohydrates     3.4 g - Dietary fiber  1.1 g   Fat 0.2 g Protein 1.2 g Water 95 g Riboflavin (Vit. B2)  0.14 mg   9% Vitamin C  17 mg 28% Potassium  262 mg   6%
Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults.

Though considered a vegetable in cooking, botanically speaking, squash is a fruit (being the receptacle for the plant's seeds), and not a vegetable.

Etymology

The English word "squash" derives from askutasquash (literally "a green thing eaten raw"), a word from the Narragansett language, which was documented by Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, in his 1643 publication A Key Into the Language of America. Similar words for squash exist in related languages of the Algonquian family such as Massachusett.

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  Squashes grow hanging from a network of stalks

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  A yellow squash

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  Petit Pan squash

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  Longitudinal section of female flower of squash (courgette), showing ovary, ovules, pistil, and petals

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  A turban squash

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  Delicata squash, also known as Sweet Potato squash

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  Various squashes such as Turban, Sweet Dumpling, Carnival, Gold Acorn, Delicata, Buttercup and Golden Nugget.

Use as an object of art

File:MocheSquash.jpg

Moche Squash Ceramic. 300 C.E. Larco Museum Collection

The squash has been an essential crop in the Andes since the pre-Columbian Era. The Moche culture from Northern Peru made ceramics from earth, water, and fire. This pottery was a sacred substance, formed in significant shapes and used to represent important themes. Squash are represented frequently in Moche ceramics.

External links

• Squash Display at Missouri Botanical Garden - Pics of 150 varieties from The Great Pumpkin Patch
• Squash Display at Missouri Botanical Garden - * [4] - Master Gardeners: McClellan Ranch 2003 Squash Varieties

Credits

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