Please forgive my ignorance. I expect this is findable, but I’m striking out with the search terms
that I can think of.
I’m having a hard time telling which winter squash is Appropriate to mix up with which other winter squash and how to identify what I’ve got.
If I have a labeled cucurbita mixta,
what is it a mix of?
How many groups of cucurbita are there?
(for practical gardening purposes)
That have useable, mixable species within their group category?
My usual approach of categorization,
—according to how I use a crop in the kitchen,
is failing me here.
It works for corn, beans, and peppers, but it isn’t working for squash.
I don’t seem to be able to
intuitively divide squash into ‘winter’ and ‘summer’ (which is how I’m used to planting and using them)
in a meaningful way.
I just looked up sweet dumpling winter squash, and got exactly as many hits that it is a Pepo as I did that it is a maxima.
This is extremely confusing.
There are more versions, but the 3 most popular are Pepo, Maxima, and Moschata. By far, pepo is eaten more commonly than the other kinds, at least in the US South in the form of yellow straight neck, crook neck, or some zucchini.
The way I look at it, summer squash is immature fruit with less shelf life. Winter squash is mature fruit with high shelf life.
The way I would go about trying to make a grex is to separate by species then summer/winter.
The genus Cucurbita is a group of flowering plants in the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae. The genus includes five domesticated species, Cucurbita argyrosperma, C. ficifolia, C. maxima, C. moschata, and C. pepo. These species are native to the Americas.
Cucurbita argyrosperma, also known as the hubbard squash, is a large, winter squash with a hard, ribbed rind.
Cucurbita ficifolia, also known as the fig leaf gourd, is a vine with large, lobed leaves. The fruits are long and slender, with a thin, edible rind.
Cucurbita maxima, also known as the buttercup squash, is a large, winter squash with a smooth, yellow or orange rind.
Cucurbita moschata, also known as the sweet potato pumpkin, is a large, winter squash with a hard, bumpy rind.
Cucurbita pepo is the most diverse species of Cucurbita and includes both summer and winter squashes. Summer squashes are harvested when their rinds are still soft, while winter squashes are harvested when their rinds are hard.
Sometimes seed companies will list the wrong species or not list species at all. I found this problem to basically disappear for me after going through enough seed catalogs and growing for a couple seasons.
Leaf shape, hairiness and fruit stem, known technically as the peduncle, are useful ways to distinguish species. I’m pretty sure @Joseph_Lofthouse has put a list up on this site, not sure where though.
One problem with this lot is that culinary uses overlap. For example, in the species Cucurbita pepo you’ll find summer squash, zucchini, pumpkins and winter squash. In Cucurbita maxima you’ll find mostly winter squash but there’s no reason why they couldn’t be used as summer squash when young. Cucurbita moschata is also mostly winter squash too but a few cultivars are grown specifically for use as zucchinis.
The ‘mixta’ in a species name usually refers to some contrasting feature(s) in the species. It doesn’t mean it’s a mix of other species.
Sweet Dumpling is definitely Cucurbita pepo and will cross with any other pepo, be they pumpkin, squash or zucchini.
Hope this helps.
These terms only refer to their preferred use. So if you let summer squash grow to maturity, it’s winter squash, and if you use them immature, you are using them as summer squash. Certainly some are bred for one or other use, but that’s all it means. Generally summer squash are c.pepo, but there are some exceptions in c.moscahata and c.maxima. You are not likely to see them if you don’t look for them. C.pepo also has lot’s of winter squash (halloween pumpkins are c.pepo) and spagetti squash.
Sweet dumbling should be a c.pepo, but after looking at pictures with google there might be some c.maxima that have been misidentified. Lot’s of people expect that they can identify mystery squash (or any other mystery variety) just by googling or asking in a gardening group and often get them misidentified. Each of the squash species has thousands of varieties with often similar looks which makes identifying mystery varieties uncertain. Those then get passed on to other people with that name.
Doesn’t matter too much when you are landracing. Only need to know species. Squash species don’t cross that easily, with maybe exception of c.moschata with c.mixta, so knowing species for certain isn’t that necessary. It still might be worth the effort to learn to distinguish species.
