Species
+

Cucurbita moschata (Duchesne) Duchesne ex Poir.

Calabaza, Calabaza; Crookneck squash, Cushaw, Dickinson pumpkin

Climate known 80 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 moschata is a species originating in the tropical Americas which is cultivated for edible flesh, flowers, greens, and seeds. It includes cultivars known in English as squash or pumpkin. Cultivars of C. moschata are generally more tolerant of hot, humid weather than squash of other domesticated species. C. moschata also exhibit a greater resistance to certain disease and insects, notably including to the squash vine borer. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Cucurbita moschata”, 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
(Duchesne) Duchesne ex Poir.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +4
Wild records
416 in range· 385 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Apr, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1233mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Sep 227 mm (CHELSA)
Light
25–41DLI
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 summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1233 mm a year, wettest September at 227 mm, driest March at 21 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 14.0 °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 Cucumis moschatus Gray; Cucurbita colombiana (Zhit.) Bukasov; Cucurbita hippopera Ser.; Cucurbita macrocarpa Gasp.; Cucurbita maxima Wall. and 41 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (952 mm of 1233 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.9 °C against a yearly mean of 24.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

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 1233 mm a year, wettest September at 227 mm, driest March at 21 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1233 mm a year at the habitat, 952 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 227 mm, driest March at 21 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 729 mm to 2329 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 25 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 41 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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 14.0 °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 14.0 °C, the absolute minimum 10.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 16.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 8.0 °C to 20.0 °C), warmest day 31.1 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.0 °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: 57 to 66% 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 26 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Apr; mean night from 17 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1233 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 367 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 10.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°38.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)10.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 25–41RH 57–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 367 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 °C26 / 20–3027 / 21–3129 / 23–3331 / 25–3531 / 25–3530 / 23–3429 / 23–3429 / 23–3429 / 22–3228 / 22–3127 / 21–3026 / 20–29
Night °C17 / 8–2017 / 9–2119 / 10–2220 / 13–2322 / 14–2523 / 15–2522 / 14–2522 / 14–2522 / 14–2421 / 13–2319 / 10–2218 / 9–21
Rain mm29 / 7–6924 / 7–5721 / 5–5338 / 5–8290 / 25–183197 / 107–363193 / 133–370205 / 124–355227 / 129–419130 / 58–29447 / 13–13832 / 7–82
DLI27 / 24–3432 / 29–3838 / 34–4441 / 39–4840 / 38–4737 / 34–4238 / 34–4137 / 34–4033 / 30–3530 / 28–3428 / 24–3325 / 22–32
RH %59 / 52–6658 / 51–6557 / 48–6357 / 47–6359 / 50–6564 / 58–6864 / 59–6964 / 59–6966 / 62–7164 / 59–6962 / 55–6860 / 53–67

Each figure is the median across the 367 grid cells holding the 414 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 1507:1848 (14.625, -87.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.0 °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 367 distinct grid cells holding the 414 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1507:1848 (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 14.50_-87.500, lapse-corrected -321 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 694 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Guatemala· introduced: Austria, Portugal, Spain, Albania, Italy, Canary Is., Cameroon, Gabon, Zaïre, Sudan, Chagos Archipelago, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, China Southeast, Korea, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Vietnam, Sumatera, Vanuatu, Line Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina Northeast
Kew's description“annual” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker20.608, -89.113 · in the densest population, 325 records (78% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 416 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 385 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 912 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 416 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cucurbita moschataCucurbita moschataCucurbita moschataCucurbita moschataCucurbita moschataCucurbita moschataCucurbita moschataCucurbita moschata

Photographs: (c) Георгий Виноградов (Georgy Vinogradov), 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 moschata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Functional group diversity of bee pollinators increases crop yield
Patrick Hoehn, Teja Tscharntke, Jason M. Tylianakis, Ingolf Steffan‐Dewenter (2008) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
FLOWERING LOCUS T Protein May Act as the Long-Distance Florigenic Signal in the Cucurbits
Ming-Kuem Lin, Hélène Bélanger, Young‐Jin Lee, Erika Varkonyi‐Gasic (2007) · The Plant Cell
Cucurbit Grafting
Angela R. Davis, Penelope Perkins‐Veazie, Yoshiteru Sakata, S. López-Galarza (2008) · Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences
Phylogenetic relationships among domesticated and wild species of Cucurbita (Cucurbitaceae) inferred from a mitochondrial gene: Implications for crop plant evolution and areas of origin
Oris I. Sanjur, Dolores R. Piperno, Thomas C. Andres, Linda Wessel-Beaver (2002) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Total carotenoid content, α-carotene and β-carotene, of landrace pumpkins (Cucurbita moschata Duch): A preliminary study
Lucía María Jaeger de Carvalho, P. B. Gomes, Ronoel Luiz de Oliveira Godóy, Sidney Pacheco (2011) · Food Research International
Preceramic Adoption of Peanut, Squash, and Cotton in Northern Peru
Tom D. Dillehay, Jack Rossen, Thomas C. Andres, David E. Williams (2007) · Science
Yield, Mineral Composition, Water Relations, and Water Use Efficiency of Grafted Mini-watermelon Plants Under Deficit Irrigation
Youssef Rouphael, Mariateresa Cardarelli, Giuseppe Colla, E. Rea (2008) · HortScience
Starch grains on human teeth reveal early broad crop diet in northern Peru
Dolores R. Piperno, Tom D. Dillehay (2008) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Effect of Salinity on Yield, Fruit Quality, Leaf Gas Exchange, and Mineral Composition of Grafted Watermelon Plants
Guiseppe Colla, Youssef Roupahel, Mariateresa Cardarelli, E. Rea (2006) · HortScience

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: filled 2026-09-20
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 110 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.