This is just a random question but do purple pumpkins/squash exist? I have seen pumpkins of all different colors but never seen one that is purple. And by pumpkin I’m just meaning any species of cucurbita, even the wild ones. Do purple genes even exist? Will a cross between a blue variety and a red one create purple like it does with crayons. Just a random question that came to mind and wondering if anyone had answers.
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Now this is the kind of questions I like! This is something I’ve thought about and so far from my research, purple genes don’t exist in Cucurbita (Or I haven’t seen any). Actually I don’t think I’ve seen any purple or blue colors in the entire Cucurbitaceae (Gourd) family now that I think about it. This includes melons, watermelons, luffas, gourds, waxgourds, cucumbers, chayotes, cucamelon, bittermelons, Casabannana, munkfruits, even passionfruit gourds.
If you do want Purple gene in Cucurbita probably will need to
- GMO it in there (Like with Purple snapdragon genes inserted into Tomato to increase the Purple Flesh trait in Tomato)
- cause lucky a mutation (like what happened with Orange Cauliflower)
- Use some method or horizontal gene flow (via mentor grafting or maybe parasitic plants)
Blue varieties aren’t true blue, they are more of a green-cyan color if if given enough time to ripen will eventually become green-yellowish.
The only fruit colors I’ve seen for Cucurbita spp. are
For Rind/Skin Color of Fruit :
Black-Green (Typically at unripe stage), Green, Cyan-blue, White, Pink, Brown-tan, Yellow, Orange, Reddish Orange for the skin color.
For Inside Flesh Color of Fruit :
White, Yellow, Orange, and rare Dark Green Flesh (Guatemalan Green Flesh Ayote Squash).
Bonus for the flower color in Cucurbita spp. :
Yellow, Orange & some wild species with White Flowers like Okeechobee Gourd (Cucurbita okeechobeensis)
As far as I know, there isn’t a red-flesh trait in any known Cucurbita spp., so no Red-fleshed squash soon (closest to it is the very intense deep orange flesh cultivars).
But I don’t think it’s impossible to get the red flesh trait in Cucurbita, it’s happened before with Red Watermelons and many other species in the Benicaseae tribe.
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Genes tend to not do color mixing the way you would expect it to act with crayons, paint, etc.
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I hadn’t realized that about blue pumpkins. There are 3 types of blue pumpkins I see. Pepo sub pepos from Mexico that have dark or light blueish green coloring. Then usually on tropical moschatas but the blue coloring comes from a waxy coating they have on them similar to the wax on an agave leaf where if you rub the wax off underneath the blue is green. And lastly on maximas but those blues are lighter in coloring and not exactly “blue”. However I do feel getting a purple pumpkin could be possible just in the way some moschatas look blue with the waxy coating. It would just require extensive breeding.
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Here’s an example of the 2 “blue” pumpkins I’m referring.
And also an example of the purple-ish coloring through the waxy coating.
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This would be super awesome! It would be “true purple” but hey… we’ll take what we can get!
Just think of the Epic Halloween potential a Purple, Black & Orange Pumpkin can have!?
If you come up with a purple pumpkin, it would certainly get attention!
WOW! That last photo, those do look purplish, this is incredible! Yea I can see combining the pink-skin colored squashes (like butternut) with a more blue-skin squash could make purple-ish skined Squash. Just keep refining that triat & it’s possible you can get it more purple. I also wonder if the blackness of some halloween Pepo pumpkins (Or black Acorn & Zucchinni) can help make it look more purple?
