Cucurbita argyrosperma

Cucurbita argyrosperma

Cucurbita argyrosperma is a plant belonging to the gourd family ( Cucurbitaceae ).

Features

Cucurbita argyrosperma is a creeping to climbing, monoecious plant species. It is individually hairy to densely fluffy or stiff. The roots are ply. The shoot axes are slightly edgy. The leaves are oval - heart shaped and have an up to 30 cm long stem. The leaf blade is 10-30 × 15-40 inches tall and has white spots. It is three to five times lobed with triangular to elliptic lobes. The leaf margin is serrated to cut - toothed. The vines are three-to four-piece.

The flowers appear singly in leaf axils. The male flowers are 10-20 cm long peduncle. The calyx is bell-shaped, 5-20 × 8-25 mm in size. The sepals are linear - lanceolate and 10-35 millimeters long. The crown is tube amps to bell-shaped, yellow to orange, 6-12 inches long, with five corolla lobes, which account for up to one third of Gesamtkronlänge. There are three stamens.

The female flowers are on a short, strong flower stem of 2-3.5 centimeters in length. The ovary is round, oval -elliptic, sausage or pear-shaped. The calyx is small, the crown slightly larger than the male flower. The stylus is dreinarbig.

The fruit is a short to long, pear-shaped, straight or curved carapace berry of 11-50 centimeters in length. The fruit rind is hard, ripped their surface smooth or easy. Her color is white with oblong reticulated green stripes, or all white. The flesh is white, yellow or orange. The seeds are elliptical, slightly inflated, 15-30 × 8-16 mm in size. The seed coat is white, smooth and uniform. You have an oil content of around 39 percent, their protein content is around 44 percent.

Cultivated forms are characterized by the following features compared to the other cultivars Pumpkin ways: The fruit stalk is tough, edgy, but becoming rounded at maturity, corky and only slightly widened at the point of attachment of the fruit. The Stems are tough, edgy and furrowed. The leaves are slightly lobed and soft hairs. The seeds are usually white, sometimes very large, the surface smooth. The edge is clearly smooth to jagged, sometimes dark.

The fruits of varieties argyrosperma and steno cum are round to pear-shaped and creamy white with green stripes. Fruits of the variety callicarpa are variable in shape and color. The variety palmeri and the subspecies subsp. sororia have small fruits with often bitter flesh.

Dissemination

The wild subspecies subsp. sororia is native to Mexico and Central America. The cultivated subspecies is argyrosperma now grown in Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean, in the southwestern United States and some parts of Asia.

System

The species was until 1930 performed as a variety of Cucurbita moschata, which it resembles morphologically with which they can not intersect. It was initially described as Cucurbita mixta by Pangalo, but then transferred to Cucurbita argyrosperma, where the species Cucurbita Cucurbita palmeri Bailey and Bailey sororia were incorporated as a variety or subspecies in Cucurbita argyrosperma. The species is subdivided as follows:

• Subsp. sororia, the wild forms
• Subsp. argyrosperma, the cultivated forms var argyrosperma includes landraces
• Var callicarpa Merrick & Bates comprises the northern cultivars
• Var steno cum ( Pang. ) Merrick & Bates includes the southern cultivars
• Var palmeri ( Bailey ) Merrick & Bates includes weed populations. They probably originated from feral forms of var callicarpa that deal with subsp. sororia have crossed.

Cultivation

The focus of cultivation is in Peru and Argentina. In the U.S., varieties of the variety callicarpa are grown to a very limited extent as food, the variety 'Silver Gourd Seed ' of the variety is grown as an ornamental plant argyrosperma.

Sowing takes place at the beginning of the rainy season ( May / June). The development takes five to seven months. Young fruits are harvested around three months after sowing. Ripe fruits for seed production are harvested from October to December. In moist soils, such as in the Mixe region of Oaxaca, the variety is steno cum in the dry season cultivated. The same is true for varieties of the variety callicarpa in the state of Sonora. However, is always artificial irrigation necessary, then the production can take place throughout the year.

Propagation is by seed only. The traditional cultivation is carried along with corn, beans and other pumpkins. Unlike the other types of pumpkin Cucurbita argyrosperma is rarely taken into vegetable gardens.

Use

Cucurbita argyrosperma is economically much less significant than garden Pumpkin, Butternut Squash and Giant Pumpkin.

The flowers, shoot tips, young and mature fruits are eaten as a vegetable. From the ripe fruits sometimes sweets are produced, mostly but are used as livestock feed. The seeds are eaten roasted as a whole, or they are ground into sauces and stews different uses. The seeds are the main product in Mexico and Central America, their consumption is widespread.

In some areas of Mexico, the seeds and unripe fruit of the wild forms are used. The immature fruits are removed by washing and cooking of their bitter taste, which based on their cucurbitacin content, free. The seeds contain no cucurbitacin. They are salted and roasted. In Yucatán the flesh of the cultural forms for the treatment of burns and skin diseases will be used.

History

The species was probably domesticated in southern Mexico, where there are archaeological finds from the period 5200 BC. From the wild subspecies subsp. sororia was the cultivated subspecies subsp. argyrosperma grown, the landraces of the variety argyrosperma be considered the oldest.

Documents

• R. Lira Saade, S. Montes Hernández: cucurbits. In: J. E. Hernández Bermejo, J. León ( eds.): Neglected crops. 1492 from a different perspective. FAO Plant Production and Protection Series No. 26, Rome 1994, pp. 63-77. ISBN 92-5-103217-3 ( online1 ) ( online2 )
• R. W. Robinson, D. S. Decker -Walters: cucurbits. CAB International, Wallingford 1997, pp. 71-83. ISBN 0-85199-133-5