Species
+

Cucurbita ficifolia Bouché

Asian pumpkin, Feigenblatt-Kürbis (DE), Fig-leaved Gourd, Figleaf gourd

Climate known 88 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Cucurbita ficifolia is a species of squash, grown for its edible seeds, fruit, and greens native to the Americas. It has common names including black seed squash, chilacayote, cidra, fig-leaf gourd, and Malabar gourd. This species is grown widely from Argentina and Chile to Mexico. It is also cultivated in regions of the world including India, Japan, Korea, China, the Philippines, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Angola.

Text from Wikipedia, “Cucurbita ficifolia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Cucurbita

Cucurbita is a genus, native to the Andes and Mesoamerica, of herbaceous fruits in the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae. Five edible species are grown and consumed for their flesh and seeds. They are variously known as squash, pumpkin, or gourd, depending on species, variety, and local parlance. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Cucurbita”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Cucurbitaceae
Described by
Bouché
Native to
Bolivia, Peru
Wild records
136 in range· 46 open

At a glance

Warmest month
18°C
Sep, mean day; nights 8 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1206mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Mar 176 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to April at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (1.5 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1206 mm a year, wettest March at 176 mm, driest July at 29 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 2.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cucurbita ficifolia f. leucosperma Zhit.; Cucurbita ficifolia f. melanosperma (A.Braun ex Gasp.) Zhit.; Cucurbita ficifolia var. mexicana G.Nicholson; Cucurbita melanosperma A.Braun; Cucurbita melanosperma A.Braun ex Gasp. and 3 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to April at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (1.5 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (846 mm of 1206 mm) falls in November to April. The temperature curve is flat, 1.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1206 mm a year, wettest March at 176 mm, driest July at 29 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1206 mm a year at the habitat, 846 mm of it November to April. Wettest month March at 176 mm, driest July at 29 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 786 mm to 2301 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 36 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 2.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 2.6 °C, the absolute minimum 0.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 23.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 7.0 °C in July (across the envelope cells 3.2 °C to 10.5 °C), warmest day 17.5 °C in September (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 17 °C in Jul to 18 °C in Sep; mean night from 7 °C in Jul to 10 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1206 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 103 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 0.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 23.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-5°10°15°20°25°frost23.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)0.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 30–36RH 60–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 103 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C17 / 14–2217 / 14–2117 / 14–2117 / 14–2017 / 14–1917 / 13–1917 / 13–1917 / 14–2018 / 15–2118 / 15–2217 / 14–2217 / 14–22
Night °C10 / 6–1310 / 6–139 / 6–139 / 6–139 / 5–128 / 4–117 / 3–117 / 4–118 / 5–119 / 6–129 / 6–129 / 6–13
Rain mm142 / 78–252151 / 100–273176 / 114–319141 / 41–23582 / 12–16751 / 8–10429 / 7–7731 / 10–7162 / 23–119105 / 52–173110 / 69–192126 / 88–220
DLI33 / 29–3932 / 29–3932 / 28–3731 / 27–3631 / 26–3430 / 25–3331 / 27–3434 / 30–3836 / 31–4036 / 32–4236 / 31–4234 / 29–41
RH %67 / 63–7168 / 62–7268 / 63–7167 / 62–7165 / 60–7062 / 58–6960 / 57–6960 / 56–6661 / 58–6764 / 60–6865 / 60–6967 / 61–70

Each figure is the median across the 103 grid cells holding the 131 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1933:2025 (-6.675, -78.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 23.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 103 distinct grid cells holding the 131 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1933:2025 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -6.50_-78.750, lapse-corrected +531 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2923 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBolivia, Peru· introduced: Germany, Spain, Canary Is., Assam, New Zealand North, California, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina Northwest, Chile North
Kew's description“annual” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-0.268, -78.499 · in the densest population, 67 records (49% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 136 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 46 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2588 km away. 551 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 5 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 136 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cucurbita ficifoliaCucurbita ficifoliaCucurbita ficifoliaCucurbita ficifoliaCucurbita ficifoliaCucurbita ficifoliaCucurbita ficifoliaCucurbita ficifolia

Photographs: (c) Stephen Thorpe, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Cucurbita ficifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Translocation of Structural P Proteins in the Phloem
Bettina Golecki, Alexander Schulz, Gary A. Thompson (1999) · The Plant Cell
Improvement of environmental stress tolerance of sweet potato by introduction of genes for spermidine synthase
Yoshihisa Kasukabe, Lixiong He, Yuriko Watakabe, Motoyasu Otani (2006) · Plant Biotechnology
Improving cucumber tolerance to major nutrients induced salinity by grafting onto Cucurbita ficifolia
Yuan Huang, Zhilong Bie, San-peng HE, Bin Hua (2010) · Environmental and Experimental Botany
Effect of cucurbita ficifolia and probiotic yogurt consumption on blood glucose, lipid profile, and inflammatory marker in Type 2 Diabetes
Gholamreza Askari, Azade Bayat, Fatemeh Azizi-Soleiman, Motahar Heidari‐Beni (2016) · International Journal of Preventive Medicine
Effects of Allelochemical Stress Produced by Sicyos deppei on Seedling Root Ultrastructure of Phaseolus vulgaris and Cucurbita ficifolia
Rocío Cruz‐Ortega, Ana Luisa Anaya, Blanca E. Hernández‐Bautista, Guillermo Laguna-Hernández (1998) · Journal of Chemical Ecology
Hypoglycemic action of Cucurbita ficifolia on Type 2 diabetic patients with moderately high blood glucose levels
JL Acosta-Patiño, E. Jiménez-Balderas, Marco Antonio Juárez-Oropeza, Juan C. Díaz-Zagoya (2001) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Cucurbita 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 63 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.