AI overview
Cucurbita pepo is a species of plant in the gourd family that includes common vegetables like pumpkins, squash, and zucchini. It matters because it provides food for people around the world and has been cultivated for thousands of years as an important crop.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Species
Least ConcernSPECIES
- KingdomPlantae
- PhylumTracheophyta
- ClassMagnoliopsida
- OrderCucurbitales
- FamilyCucurbitaceae
Native toMexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest
General: Cucurbita pepo has been cultivated for its edible fruits
via GBIF · IUCN · Kew POWO
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Subclass of
- useful plant
Article
Cucurbita pepo is a cultivated plant of the genus Cucurbita. It yields varieties of winter squash and pumpkin, but the most widespread varieties belong to the subspecies Cucurbita pepo subsp. pepo, called summer squash.
It has been domesticated in the Americas for thousands of years, from where it was spread by early colonisers to Europe and later across the rest of the Old World in the context of the Columbian Exchange. Some authors maintain that C. pepo is derived from C. texana, while others suggest that C. texana is merely feral C. pepo. They have a wide variety of uses, especially as a food source. C. pepo seems more closely related to C. fraterna, though disagreements exist about the exact nature of that connection, too.
Gallery (13)
Connections
Categories
Botanical taxa named by Carl LinnaeusCommons link from WikidataCrops originating from MexicoCrops originating from Pre-Columbian North AmericaCucurbitaIUCN Red List least concern speciesPlants described in 1753Plants used in traditional Native American medicinePlants with edible fruitSquashes and pumpkinsTaxonbars with 40–44 taxon IDs