Plant Anatomy 101: Pumpkins

In light of the season and changing colors, I thought we could explore a Halloween staple: Pumpkins! Actually, in the office today we were talking about melons. Watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydew melons, winter melons, muskmelons. Andree' was cutting up a cantaloupe this morning and noticed that the stringy attachment pattern of the seeds, sticking to each other and to the fleshy area of the melon, quite resembled a pumpkin. We all went on to speculate that both cantaloupe and pumpkin seeds are similar in shape and color and when carving pumpkins, the seeds are most readily located in the center and attached with slimy strings to the "guts" inside. Which begs the question: Is there a relationship here? If so, what is that relationship?

Pumpkins, being a gourd, are typically defined as culinary vegetables. Cantaloupes, and other melons, are generally referred to as culinary fruits. But, we have already learned in other Plant Anatomy 101 installments that anything with seeds are, botanically, fruits. So cantaloupes, as well as all melons, and pumpkins, as well as all gourds, are fruits.

As it turns out, Andree' was dead on in her supposition about pumpkins and cantaloupes. Both of these fruits belong to the plant family Cucurbitaceae. This plant family includes melons and gourds. So all melons, cucumbers, and gourds (which includes pumpkins, squash, zucchini, etc.) are all related and in the same genetic family. This makes sense since these fruits all have similar structures with fleshy parts beneath the skin, or rind, and seeds that are centered in the middle. Even cucumbers have their seeds all in the very center, which is squishy and has the harder part of the fruit around it. Also, all of these fruits grow on vines, and their flowers are usually a white or bright yellow.

Another fascinating discovery that I made investigating pumpkins is a plant called the luffa. You know those scrubby spongy things that you can use in the shower? Originally, these come from the luffa plant, which is also in the Cucurbitaceae family. Luffas are cucumber-shaped fruits that are popular vegetables in Asia and Africa, but also can be turned into a luffa sponge by peeling the luffa, removing its seeds, and drying it out.

Since this is supposed to mostly be about pumpkins for the fall harvests, here are a few suggestions of what you can do with pumpkins this October, besides carving them up for Halloween.

Cocoa Pumpkin Brownies: I haven't tried this one yet, but I love brownies and it sounds good to me! If you give this one a try or have had it before, let us all know how it went.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds in 3 Ways: Don't throw out those seeds! Here are three new and different ways to spice up those toasted pumpkins seeds: Sweet & Spicy, Curry, or Black Tea & Butter. Yum!

Homemade Pumpkin Pie from a Real Pumpkin: What is October and November without a pumpkin pie? I have always used canned pumpkin to make my pumpkin pies, but this one looks really fun to try using a real pumpkin.

Photo Credit

Pumpkin photo credit