Pumpkins, Squash and Gourds -Which Is Which
By Master Gardener Virgil Jones

Most folks are familiar with the Charlie Brown story about The Great Pumpkin, but was it really a pumpkin? Pumpkins, squash and gourds all are members of the Cucurbita family of plants, with the terms squash and pumpkin having no precise botanical meaning. In fact, in Australia the term squash usually refers to both pumpkin and squash.

Pumpkins, squash and gourds are closely related to cucumber, muskmelon and watermelon, and all belong to one of the four species of cucurbita genus: pepo, mixta, moschata and maxima.

Winter squash can be any one of three species of cucurbita. C. pepo types, such as acorn squash, have hard angular stems. The peduncle, or attachment of the stem to the fruit flares strongly and the leaves of the plant are lobed. C. moschata types, such as butternut squash, have hard, smoothly grooved peduncles flaring at the fruit. They also have angular stems, but leaves are only slightly lobed. C. maxima types such as Hubbard, Marrow, Banana, Turban and Turk’s head, have a corky peduncle, fleshy round stems, and rounded, relatively non-lobed leaves.

Squash types with round, orange fruit, referred to as pumpkins, are mainly used today as Halloween decoration rather than for food. Fruits are harvested at full seed maturity but generally do not store as well as the winter squash types. The flesh is a little too coarse and strong-flavored for eating, so most pumpkin pies are made from winter squash. In earlier times, pumpkins were used mainly for livestock food.

Charlie Brown’s pumpkin is a member of the Cucurbita pepo species, and is everyone’s idea of a typical orange pumpkin--the huge Halloween type--but the pepo species also includes the small sugar pumpkins as well as yellow summer crookneck squash, the light-green, club-shaped zucchini squash, the white scalloped patty pan squash and the dark-green, almost black, acorn squash. To further confuse us, this same species --pepo-- includes gourds, like the small ornamental gourds (egg-shaped, bicolor, striped, warted and spoon gourds) used in our autumn decorations.

Incidentally, the pumpkin, squash and gourd species of cucurbita are native American plants introduced from Mexico, Central America and South America, while the cucumber originated in India and the watermelon came from Africa. The name “squash” comes from the Massachusett Indian word meaning, “eaten raw”.

If you are eating “pumpkin” pie, and have made it with a commercially canned product, you are in all probability eating “squash” pie! You won’t know the difference because our taste buds can’t distinguish between pumpkin and squash. For some, the only difference would be between the texture because pumpkin pie would have a somewhat coarser texture than would squash pie. Pumpkin pie or squash pie--who cares when enjoying a slice topped with whipped cream following a bountiful Thanksgiving or Christmas feast!