Appearance

Growth form

A long-running annual vine that trails across the ground and climbs with branched tendrils.

Leaves

Broad, rounded leaves up to about 12 in (30 cm) across, wavy or shallowly lobed and rough to the touch.

Flowers

Large yellow flowers; each plant bears separate male and female flowers. Bees carry pollen between them, and poorly pollinated fruits start to grow and then fail.

Fruit

Very variable: often wider than long and somewhat flattened, with gray, dark green, orange, or red rind and yellow to orange flesh. The fruit stem becomes thick, round, and spongy-corky.

Look-alikes

Field pumpkin and zucchini (Cucurbita pepo)Cucurbita pepo

Check the fruit stem: on C. pepo it is hard, sharply angled, and ridged with five or six grooves. On C. maxima it is round, soft, and swollen with cork.

Why they get mixed up · Both are sold as pumpkins in fall.

Butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata)Cucurbita moschata

C. moschata has a hard, smoothly angled fruit stem that flares out where it meets the fruit, and its fruits are often cylindrical and dull tan-orange.

Why they get mixed up · Some canning and pie pumpkins, like the Dickinson pumpkin, are C. moschata.

	Fruit stem	Vine stem	Familiar examples
Winter squash / giant pumpkin	Round, soft, corky, no grooves	Soft and round	Hubbard, buttercup, kabocha, giant pumpkins
Field pumpkin / zucchini	Hard, angular, ridged	Hard and angular	Jack-o'-lanterns, zucchini
Butternut squash	Hard, angled, flared at fruit	Fairly hard, smoothly angled	Butternut, Dickinson pumpkin

Where it lives

Typical habitats

• farms
• vegetable gardens

Range

Domesticated in South America more than 4,000 years ago, probably in northern Argentina near the Andes. Some types reached North America as early as the 1500s, and Native American tribes were growing it widely by the time of the American Revolution. Today it is grown as a crop and garden vegetable across the U.S.

Preferred conditions

Grows best in slightly acidic soil (pH 6.0–6.8). Plants are usually spaced 3–5 ft (90–150 cm) apart in rows 6–10 ft (1.8–3 m) apart.

Connected species

Pollinators

• Squash beePeponapis pruinosa

  A native ground-nesting bee that historically pollinated U.S. pumpkins and squash.

Close relatives

• Cucurbita andreana

  The wild ancestor, with fruits much smaller than C. maxima's and unpleasant to eat; it crosses easily with the cultivated plant.

Name and classification

About the name

Its wild ancestor, Cucurbita andreana from Argentina and Uruguay, is sometimes treated as a wild subspecies of C. maxima.

Varieties and forms

Main types include Hubbard, buttercup (turban-shaped, dark green, 3–5 lb), banana (long, with pink, blue, or orange skin), kabocha (dark green Japanese type), turban, and giant pumpkins such as 'Dill's Atlantic Giant'.

Conservation

IUCN Red List

NENot Evaluated·Not yet assessed

Culture and stories

Culture and stories

• 'Dill's Atlantic Giant', developed by Nova Scotia grower Howard Dill and first patented in 1979, set a 459-lb (208 kg) world record in 1980.
• The Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival in California hosts a world-championship pumpkin weigh-off.