Cucurbita moschata Duchesne

Plants annual; roots taproots or fibrous. Stems creeping or climbing, rooting adventitiously at nodes, to 10+ m, villous-hirsute with mixture of longer, thick, vitreous hairs with conspicuous cross-walls and puberulent understory of much shorter hairs, without pustulate-based hairs; tendrils 3–5-branched 1.5–8 cm above base, glabrous, eglandular. Leaves: petiole 4–25(–40) cm, villous-hirsute with mixture of longer, thick, vitreous hairs with conspicuous cross-walls and puberulent understory of much shorter hairs, without pustulate-based hairs; blade sometimes white-mottled abaxially, suborbiculate to broadly ovate, depressed-ovate, or reniform, shallowly 3–5(–7)-lobed, 5–25 × (8–)10–25(–30) cm, broader than long, base cordate, lobes ovate to broadly triangular or broadly obovate, midveins of leaf lobes not distinctly elongate-whitened, margins closely serrate-denticulate or serrulate-apiculate to denticulate or mucronulate, surfaces densely hirsute to hirsutulous abaxially, less densely hairy adaxially, eglandular. Peduncles in fruit 5-ribbed, abruptly expanded at point of fruit attachment, hardened, woody. Flowers: hypanthium cupulate, 5–8 mm; sepals narrowly lanceolate, distally foliaceous, 15–25 mm; corolla yellow, tubular-campanulate, 5–7 cm; anther filaments glabrous or sparsely puberulent at base; ovary pubescent. Pepos evenly light or dark green or cream-speckled to evenly light or dark brown, speckled or not, or wholly white, globose or depressed-globose to ovoid, conic, cylindric, pyriform, or lageniform, 10–40(–120) cm, usually smooth or with rounded ribs, rarely with small, raised, wartlike spots, <flesh yellow to light or bright orange to greenish, lightly to very sweet>. Seeds whitish to cream or light brown with golden-yellow to silvery margins, ovate-elliptic to elliptic or obovate, 8–21 mm, margins raised-thickened, ± undulate, surface ± punctate-sculptured. 2n = 40.

A tropical plant. It suits the wet tropics. It will thrive in humid as well as in very hot climates. A temperature of 18-30°C is best. In PNG it grows to 2,400 m above sea level. It can tolerate some shade. It can grow in soils with a pH of 5.5-6.9. In Bolivia it grows up to 2000 m altitude. It suits hardiness zones 8-11. In Yunnan.

The fruit are eaten cooked. They are boiled, fried or baked. They can be mashed and used in pies, soups, bread and cakes. They can be dried, ground into flour and used for bread. The young leaves and flowers are edible. They can also be dried and stored. The seeds are eaten roasted. They can also be roasted in salt.

Plants are grown from seed. Seeds can be put in a nursery and transplanted.