Pumpkin

 Pumpkin/Sweet gourd

Scientific Name: Cucurbita maxima Duchesne

English names: Pumpkin, Sweet Gourd, Winter Squash.

Local names: মিষ্ঠি কুমড়া (‘Mistikumra’)

Taxonomic Position According to Cronquist (1988)

Botanical Description of Pumpkin

Habit: An annual, climbing herb.

Root: Tap root system

Figure Root Anatomy of Sweet Gourd

Stem: cylindrical, elongate, and grooved, having tendril.

Figure Stem Anatomy of Sweet Gourd

Leaf: Leaves more or less reniform with 5- rounded shallow lobes, c 6-19 x 7-30 cm, coarsely hairy, margin minutely dentate, petioles 10-20 cm long, hairy.

Figure Leaf Anatomy of Sweet Gourd

Inflorescence: Solitary, plants monoecious.

Male flowers: Peduncles 10-16 cm long, puberulous, calyx tube club-shaped. 5-10 mm long, lobes 5, linear, hairy, corolla yellow, tubular, 4-7 cm long, campanulate, lobes 5, ovate-orbicular, 2-3 cm long, apex obtuse, margin rugose.

Androecium: Stamens 3, filaments 5-8 mm long, almost glabrous or puberulous at the base, anthers 12-16 mm long, connivent.

Female flowers: Peduncles 5-7 cm long, solitary, calyx and corolla as in the male, staminodes 3, Gynoecium: Ovary ovoid, style short, stigma 2-lipped.

Fruits: Pepo, large, variable in shape, size and colour, pulp more or less fibrous.

Seeds: Ovate, obscurely marginate, white or yellowish.

Economic importance: The leaves, flowers and fruits are used as vegetables. Tender shoots and leaves are used as salad. Seeds are anthelmintic, diuretic and tonic. Fruit pulp is useful in bums and boils. Oil obtained from seeds is said to be a nerve tonic.

Table 1. Varieties of pumpkin developed by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Joydebpur, Bangladesh