I know there hasn’t been any replies here recently but I wanted to add what I found in research of this species. Cushaws (cucurbita argyrosperma subs argyrosperma) were most likely domesticated in the wet-dry forest of Mexico for their seeds. It is here where you can find the greatest diversity of cushaw varieties and where I focused most on. Compared to other squash species, except cucurbita ficifolia, cushaws come in the least amount of colors. Nevertheless they are still very diverse coming in white, black, tan, green, orange, and yellow. They usually have thick stems like cucurbita maxima and really only come in 3 shapes, bottle, hubbard, and small round/flat. Cushaws are primarily used in two ways, flesh or seed. In Mexico their biggest use is for seed production. The seed cushaws or calabaza pipiana are the small round or flat ones. They usually are striped orange, tan or green with very thick skin, where they are usually opened with a machete, and have a large seed cavity. The seeds are large and flat very similar to the well known silver striped cushaw. The flesh is mostly unused usually discarded as cattle feed. What I found most interesting however is the fact that these landraces of cushaws all seem to have green flesh/pulp, like that of the green ayote squash, cucurbita moschata. While the flesh is not as dark green as the green ayote it is still fairly green with even greener flesh. It is only on the cushaws used specifically for seed production that seem to exhibit this trait. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DVDBSUaFjUoo&ved=2ahUKEwjVxubr5MWTAxWOkO4BHY12K_YQwqsBegQIFBAB&usg=AOvVaw3TaUS0vjnbfERudHIl7e80 https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DVDBSUaFjUoo&ved=2ahUKEwjVxubr5MWTAxWOkO4BHY12K_YQwqsBegQIFBAB&usg=AOvVaw3TaUS0vjnbfERudHIl7e80 In the videos provided, you can see how they open and scoop out the seeds from this unique green flesh squash. I assume this shows how closely related c. argyrosperma and c. moschata are since they both can produce squash with this unique coloring. The other use of cushaws in Mexico is for flesh and those are typically the larger bottle or hubbards. Information on flesh cushaws in Mexico seemed to be limited, as stated before they are mostly used for seed production and c. moschata are used for their flesh. Flesh cushaws still come in an array of colors with flesh from white, yellow, to orange and are commonly eaten as a summer squash when young. I just wanted to share this information I found, specifically the unique green coloring because it seems that no ones has ever talked about it. Photos are from different sources online.
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