Giant pumpkin
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Giant pumpkin ( Cucurbita maxima ), illustration |
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| Duchesne ex Poir. |
The giant pumpkin ( Cucurbita maxima ) is a cultivated plant species from the cucurbit family (Cucurbitaceae). It provides the largest fruits in the vegetable kingdom .
description
The giant pumpkin can be distinguished from the other cultivated types of pumpkin by the following features: The fruit stem is soft, round, often corky and does not widen at the fruit base. The stem is soft and round. The leaves are not lobed and soft. The seeds are white to brown, often thick. The seed surface is sometimes wrinkled. The seed scar is crooked.
Vegetative characteristics
The giant pumpkin is an annual herbaceous plant with long climbing stems . Some cultivated forms grow bushy. It forms tendrils . The stem axis is round and soft. The alternate leaves are arranged in a petiole and a leaf blade. The leaf blade is approximately circular, in any case not clearly lobed.
Generative characteristics
The unisexual flowers are radial symmetry . The corolla lobes are turned outwards.
The fruit stalk is short, spongy, almost cylindrical. The fruits are armored berries , very variable and can weigh several hundred kilograms. The colors of the round to oval fruits are orange, green or gray, the surface is smooth or ribbed. The seeds are usually large, thick, white or brown, wavy or smooth.
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 40.
distribution
The wild form is native to Argentina and Uruguay. In pre-Columbian times it was widespread in South America, today it is grown worldwide. The giant pumpkin is also known as the winter pumpkin, as it can withstand more cold than the other types of pumpkin, but not longer periods of frost. Therefore it is grown at higher latitudes and at higher altitudes than musk and garden gourds .
Systematics
The wild form is called the subspecies Cucurbita maxima subsp. andreana (Naud.) Filov from the cultivated subspecies Cucurbita maxima subsp. maxima separated. The wild form is characterized by bitter fruits.
Within the cultivated subspecies, many of the varieties can be classified in an informal scheme that is based on the shape of the fruit and includes the following groups of varieties:
- 'Banana': long fruits, pointed at both ends, with a soft rind and brown seeds
- 'Delicious': turban-like fruit, slightly ribbed, with a hard rind and white seeds
- 'Hubbard': oval fruit, curved necks at both ends, very hard rind and white seeds
- 'Marrow': oval to pear-shaped fruit, rapidly narrowing at the tip, gradually at the base, with white seeds
- 'Show': large, orange-colored fruits with a soft rind and white seeds
- 'Turban': Turban-shaped fruit that arises from the fact that the uppermost area of the flower is not surrounded by tissue on the base of the flower, i.e. the ovary is not completely below it.
Individual varieties are:
- The 'Buttercup' variety is a widespread, storable variety (winter squash). The fruit is dark green with a growth at the flower end, it belongs to the turban group.
- The Hokkaido pumpkin is an orange-colored, small-fruited, also storable winter pumpkin variety with a nutty aroma. When cooking, the thin shell becomes soft and can be eaten.
- 'Turk's Turban' has very colorful fruits that are used as ornaments or as winter squash.
- 'Hubbard' delivers large, oval fruits that can be stored well and are of good quality. There are orange, green and gray shapes. The variety was introduced to New England from South America in 1856.
- Up to now the two varieties 'Big Max' and 'Prizewinner' have mostly been used for competitions.
Both varieties produce large, orange fruits up to a maximum weight of 100 kg, 'Prizewinner' has a particularly beautiful color.
- The largest fruits are supplied by the variety 'Atlantic Giant', a selection of the heaviest fruits (and crosses with each other) over a period of about 30 years, started by the American breeder Howard Dill.
Record sizes of the fruit
All current competitions are won by fruits of the 'Atlantic Giant' variety.
A new world record was set on October 12, 2014: At the European Pumpkin Weighing Championships in Ludwigsburg, the pumpkin from Swiss gardener Beni Meier weighed 1,054 kg. A new world record was set in Ludwigsburg in 2016: the Belgian breeder Mathias Willemijns reached a weight of 1190.5 kilos with his pumpkin.
By Messe Garden Tulln , a new record in the Giant Pumpkin Championship in Austria was reported on October 1, 2017: The 693.0 kg heavy pumpkin dominates the Euro pallet on which it lies. The previous record was 669 kg from 2013. In 2018, only 654.8 kg was achieved.
use
The “pulp” is processed into cakes ( pumpkin pie ) or canned food or frozen, as is garden pumpkin and musk pumpkin. It can be cooked as a soup. Giant pumpkin is preferred for the production of baby food due to its lack of fiber and its taste. For Halloween , giant pumpkins are hollowed out and illuminated.
There are also size competitions that range up to European championships.
history
The giant pumpkin was domesticated in South America, in the Andes, and is called zapallo here . The center of diversity is in northern Argentina, Bolivia, southern Peru and northern Chile. Already in the 15th century it was widespread to the north in the entire climatically warm area of influence of the Inca . In the 18th century it was brought to the northeastern United States, where it is still very popular, especially in New England. Today the giant pumpkin is grown worldwide, especially in South America, India, Europe, the Philippines, the United States and Africa.
Common names
For the giant pumpkin and the garden pumpkin , the other German-language trivial names exist or existed , whereby no differentiation is made between the two types: Bäbenen, Bebirna ( Old High German ), Chörbse ( St. Gallen ), Churbez ( Middle High German ), Churbiz (Old High German) , Corbess (Middle High German), Corbicz (Middle High German), Corbs (Middle High German), Couwörden, Curbiz (Old High German), Fläschen ( Altenahr , Hunsrück ), Flaskenappel ( East Friesland ), Kerbes ( Transylvania ), Kirbes (Middle High German), Kirbis (Middle High German), Kirbs (Middle High German), Kirns ( Eifel near Bertrich ), Körbis, Körbitzen ( Magdeburg Bible from 1578), Körbs ( Mecklenburg , Pomerania ), Körwitz ( Hamburg ), Korbes (Middle High German), Korbess (Middle High German), Korbis (Middle High German), Korbiz (Middle High German), Korvase, Korvese, Korvesege, Korvesen ( Lübeck Bible), Korwicze (Middle High German), Koyrbiss ( Middle Low German ), Kreps, Kürbeiz (Middle High German), Kürbis (m Middle High German), Kürbiss (Middle High German), Kürbs ( Rhine ), Kurbisch (Middle High German), Kürbis (Middle High German), Kurbiss (Middle High German) and Kurbiz (Middle High German), Kurbsch, Kurbesa, Kurbeta, Kyrbs (Middle High German), Kyrbss (Middle High German), Kyrpss (Middle High German), Malune (St. Gallen, Bern ), Plutz, Plutzer ( Austria ) and Torkappel ( Altmark ).
literature
- RW Robinson, DS Decker-Walters: Cucurbits . CAB International, Wallingford 1997, ISBN 0-85199-133-5 , pp. 71-83.
- Office of International Affairs (Ed.): Lost Crops of the Incas: Little-Known Plants of the Andes with Promise for Worldwide Cultivation . National Academy Press 1989, p. 204. ISBN 0-309-07461-4 (online) (history section)
Web links
- Thomas Meyer: Data sheet with identification key and photos at Flora-de: Flora von Deutschland (old name of the website: Flowers in Swabia )
- Austrian Giant Pumpkin Growers - Association that deals with cultivation
- Pumpkins at bio-gaertner.de
- Cucurbita maxima at Plants For A Future
- 327 kg pumpkin 2010 in Heitlingen
Individual evidence
- ^ RW Robinson, DS Decker-Walters: Cucurbits. CAB International, Wallingford 1997, ISBN 0-85199-133-5 , p. 75.
- ^ Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . With the collaboration of Angelika Schwabe and Theo Müller. 8th, heavily revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 , pp. 679 .
- ↑ New world record, October 2014 www.proplanta.de, accessed on October 12, 2014.
- ↑ New world record badische-zeitung.de, October 2016.
- ↑ Austrian record at the giant pumpkin championship orf.at, October 1, 2017, accessed October 2, 2017.
- ↑ 654.8 kg: A pumpkin as heavy as a horse orf.at, October 7, 2018, accessed October 7, 2018.
- ↑ The heaviest pumpkin in the world. WAZ, October 9, 2016, accessed October 9, 2016 .
- ^ Georg August Pritzel , Carl Jessen : The German folk names of plants. New contribution to the German linguistic treasure. Philipp Cohen, Hanover 1882, p. 120 f. ( online ).