SC - Gourds and Squash

[ND Wederstrandt]

        Gourds and squashes are intermixed.  They belong to the same big
family (Curcurbitaceae) which includes squash, gourds, cucumbers, and
luffas.  Then they break down into smaller groups, Pepo for pumpkins, and a
few others (don't have the rest of the info here.  The Old World squashes
for the most part belong to the genus Lagenaria and are considered gourds.
When gourds, luffas are small you can eat them..  Up to the point to where
they start getting woody or if the Luffa's case they get fibrous.  One of
my friends had a huge luffa plant and would eat the tiny luffas much like
zucchini's.  You can do that with some gourds as well, except some are
bitter. Cucumbers seem to have been in both places at once and so were
types of melons.  Cucumber plants look more like gourd plants.  We have
some wild gourds here in Ansteorra.  They are called buffalo gourds but I
don't think they are edible.
        One of the theories I read was that the hard shell gourds may have
originally not been from Europe but they fell in the water and migrated
through the currents.  I think that plants seem to evolve from common
ancestors just differently.  That why soo many of our roses are from China
but you can also find them in Europe and North America.

        To sum it up summer and winter squashes came from the New World
while gourd type squashes came from the Old World.  I think the big problem
is we call them all squash which  is a North American Indigenous people
word.  (trying to be politically correct)  If you type in the word
Lagenaria on the search engine of your choice you can find wonderful lists
and pictures of them.

Clare St. John



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