Cucurbita melopepo var. melopepo

Plants domesticated, sometimes escaping. Pepos solid or striped, multiple colors, including yellow and orange, rind smooth, ribbed, or warty, flesh not bitter (except for some ornamental gourd cultivars). Seeds: germination within 3–15 days, depending on cultivar.

Phenology: Flowering Jun–Oct.
Habitat: Vacant lots, trash heaps, roadsides, disturbed sites
Elevation: 100–200 m

Distribution

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• Legacy Map

Ark., Calif., Ga., Ill., Ky., La., Miss., Mo., Tex., W.Va., introduced and cultivated nearly worldwide.

Discussion

All forms of var. melopepo are domesticated; these include most ornamental gourds (for example, Flat-striped, Striped Pear, Bicolor Spoon, Miniature Ball, Mandan, Orange Warted, Warty Hardhead) and the acorn, crookneck, straightneck, scallop, pattypan, summer, and spaghetti squashes. They are hypothesized to be derivatives of var. ozarkana (D. S. Decker et al. 1993, 2002b), as var. texana has an isozyme pattern distinct from the others (Decker et al. 1993). Wild forms of subsp. melopepo once may have been distributed as far as Florida (L. A. Newsom et al. 1993).

Some weedy-habitat populations of Cucurbita melopepo in Illinois and Kentucky may have evolved purely as cultivar escapes; these may also have experienced subsequent introgression with other, nearby, cultivated, weedy, or wild populations of var. ozarkana (D. S. Decker et al. 2002b and references therein).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.