Classical name Cucurbita—gourd.
Herbaceous tendril climbers and scramblers. Leaves large, variously lobed. Flowers unisexual, bell-shaped, mostly solitary. Male flowers with 3 free stamens more or less united. Female flowers with an inferior ovary. Fruit a berry with a hard rind, sometimes called a pepo. Seeds numerous.
Grown as vegetables, chiefly pumpkins, squashes, and ornamental gourds. Cucurbita foetidissima is the source of oil and protein, the roots are used as a laxative and the fruits are edible.
27 species from tropical and subtropical America.
Bailey (1943).
Source: (1997). Cucurbitaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
