100 More Species #48: pumpkin
Pumpkin Cucurbita sp. Probably C. pepo but possibly C. pepo x maxima
Last fall, shortly after Halloween had passed, some farm donated a huge amount of pumpkins to the zoo. Pumpkins are fun novelty enrichment items for the zoo but they have to be judiciously used because they are relatively high in calories and sugar. There were so many donated that before they could be all used, they began to decompose and create a mess (to say nothing of the potential pest problem) in the area where they were stored. I took home a few, to use as fun novelty enrichment items for our home animal collection.
The dogs ripped them apart and carried them around and had a grand old time with them. Visiting wildlife foraged on the seeds, scattering them about. This sprout underneath our picnic table was a complete surprise. It's nice to see a native cultivated food plant volunteering in the yard.
The pumpkins we used were squat dense things that would require the skills of a stonemason to make into jack-o-lanterns. Smooth-skinned sugary pumpkins for carving and pie making are cultivated from a wild squash Cucurbita pepo. Massive, bumpy, state fair, Cinderella's carriage pumpkins are cultivated from a relative, Cucurbita maxima. Pumpkin cultivation, like all plant cultivation, involves selecting strains and hybrids with desired traits. The pumpkins growing in my yard were almost certainly chosen for decorative traits--unusual skin color and texture--but the flesh and seeds are still edible (we roasted up some of the seeds).
While researching this I discovered that there was a recent kerfuffle regarding warty pumpkins. One seed producer developed a strain of consistently and copiously warted pumpkins and applied to patent it. (This strain was named "Super Freak" by the seed company.) Rival seed producers came out of the woodwork with their catalogs and documentation to protect their own specialized lines of bumpy gourds. The trait of warts on a Cucurbit was thought to indicate a distinct strain dating back to the 18th century. The patent was rejected in 2009 so if our yard pumpkins turn out to be warty we won't be risking a lawsuit.