Pumpkin

An annual herbaceous plant that trails or climbs by tendrils, with hairy stems and leaves. The leaves are large, heart-shaped and coarsely lobed. The flowers are large and yellow and borne singly; male and female flowers occur separately on the same plant. The fruit is a large berry (pepo) with an orange, grooved skin when ripe, weighing from about 0.45 kg to over 450 kg (fruits over one tonne have been recorded). The flesh is thick and holds many flat, oval, oil-rich seeds. Compared with other squashes, C. moschata tolerates hot, humid weather better and resists the squash vine borer.

The genus Cucurbita is native to the Americas; the oldest pumpkin seeds found in Mexico date to 7000–5500 BCE. C. moschata is one of the most widely cultivated squashes in the tropics and shows its greatest diversity in tropical America. In Vietnam, pumpkin is cooked into soups and stews, stir-fried and made into sweet soup; the young shoots and flowers are boiled or stir-fried; the seeds are roasted and are used in folk medicine as a dewormer. The flesh is rich in beta-carotene (provitamin A), iron, potassium, phosphorus and vitamins C, B1, B2, B5, B6 and PP, plus linoleic acid, and is considered good for the brain and immunity. The fruit is also used as animal feed and for decoration (Halloween pumpkins).