Pumpkin

One of the oldest domesticated plants in the Americas – its seeds from a cave in Oaxaca are about 10,000 years old.

An annual, trailing or climbing plant of the gourd family, with large, rough, lobed leaves, tendrils and showy yellow-orange flowers that are either male or female. The fruits are astonishingly varied in shape and colour – the species includes courgettes and pattypan squashes as well as ornamental gourds. Seed remains from Guilá Naquitz cave in Oaxaca are among the oldest evidence of plant domestication in the New World. The large leaves shade the soil and keep weeds down.

Significance in the country

Squash is the third of the milpa’s “three sisters”, alongside maize and beans. Mexican cooks use the young fruits (calabacitas), the flowers (flor de calabaza) in quesadillas and soups, and the toasted seeds (pepitas) to make pipián sauce or as a snack with salt and chili.

Where it grows

Grown throughout the country – in traditional milpas, home gardens and large commercial fields, from the northern states to the Yucatán.

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