This came from a GTS packet of moschata seeds–unless I mixed up the seedlings by mistake! Do you think it is a moschata? I was looking at Joseph L’s page on identifying squashes, and it doesn’t look like any of the pictures. It’s pretty big, about 6 lb. We had some for supper and flesh was orange, smelled to both of us like watermelon, was a little bland raw but quite tasty when roasted in cubes although mostly not as sweet as I would wish. But not as watery as some others in that packet that looked more like giant butternuts.
I"m mostly concerned about putting the saved seeds in the right category for my own use or if sharing, Thanks for any thoughts!
It looks lika moschata more than anything. I have a moschata population that is part c.argyrosperma where green white spotty is quite a common trait and it came from green striped cushaw, but I don’t know if some seeds have gotten to that side of the pond. Would expect the results be quite the same if the cross had happend there with some other c.argyrosperma. That shape definetely suggests moschata. That kinda stem is only found in moschata and possibly in c.argyrosperma. Personally I haven’t had that shape/colour combo yet, but that shape is quite common in moschata.
I’ve been monitoring this thread because I’m trying to refine my squash species ID skills.
Now that there is an ID for this particular one, I thought I would ask you all about this diagram that I recently noticed on the spanish language Wikipedia article for C. argyrosperma. I don’t think it was created to be diagnostic for these species, but it’s being used like that on Wikipedia.
I don’t speak Spanish, so I may be misunderstanding. I believe that the authors of this paper intend for this diagram to specifically distinguish between a landrace of C. argyrosperma grown in Argentina and the C. moschata which is also grown there.
However to me, this seems like a diagram I could also apply to argyrosperma and moschata I see in Kentucky. I can see why the editors of Spanish Wikipedia would feel justified in adding it to that text. Does anyone here have thoughts on whether it would be appropriate to refer to these for squash in places other than Argentina?
These are nice diagrams. I haven’t seen many argyrosperma stems, but was wondering, are they somewhat similar to maxima stems? Do they have a little twist to them, unlike maximas?
I’ve looked at all of my Cucurbita fruit in storage. I have relatively small quantities, so this may not be representative.
The moschata and pepo peduncles I have here are twisted. The ficifolia and the maxima is not twisted.
My C. argyrosperma fruits do seem to have some twisting, but less than moschata or pepo. These are photos of three different cushaw fruits. One I harvested a little bit immature, it is the least corky.
Do some of your argyrosperma have the flares at the base similar to moschata? Are they hybrids? Do they shrink as the fruit ages? Would you be able to distinguish between argyrosperma and moschata just by looking at the stem? I think I might find it difficult to do without training myself on a lot more examples.
The cushaws people are growing in Eastern Kentucky have a peduncle that narrows a little bit right at the base. These do not flare out, and they don’t shrink as much as moschata (or ficifolia and pepo).
It seems like Anna’s photo in the original post has a strongly typical moschata stem. In my work as cushaw seed steward, so I have been in contact with two people who have cushaws that I think are mostly or entirely C. moschata.
My impression so far is that making an ID could sometimes require two or three characteristics. I have been following Joseph Lofthouse’s lead (here in this thread and elsewhere) by prioritizing the peduncle when I’m trying to ID a potential cushaw.
Edit: I believe that all of the cushaws I’ve been photographing in this thread are ‘true’ cushaws. I think what I man is that there may have been some crossing decades or centuries ago, but I think that science would call all of these Cucurbita argyrosperma subsp argyrosperma var callicarpa.
