Similar words for squash exist in related languages of the Algonquian family such as Massachusett. This was documented by Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, in his 1643 publication A Key Into the Language of America. The English word "squash" derives from askutasquash (literally, "a green thing eaten raw"), a word from the Narragansett language. The beans provided nitrogen fixing for all three crops.
The squash vines provided ground cover to limit weeds. These were usually planted together, with the cornstalk providing support for the climbing beans, and shade for the squash. The Three Sisters were the three main indigenous plants used for agriculture: Maize (corn), beans, and squash. Squash was one of the "Three Sisters" planted by Native Americans. Archaeological evidence suggests that squash may have been first cultivated in Mesoamerica some 8,000 to 10,000 years ago (Roush 1997 Smith 1997), but may have been independently cultivated elsewhere, albeit later (Smith 2006). Squashes generally refer to four species of the genus Cucurbita native to the New World, also called marrows depending on variety or the nationality of the speaker. The pepo, derived from an inferior ovary, is characteristic of the Cucurbitaceae. The fruit is often a kind of berry called a pepo. The female flowers have inferior ovaries. The flowers are unisexual, with male and female flowers usually on different plants (dioecious), or less common on the same plant (monoecious). (In botany, a tendril is a specialized stem, leaf, or petiole with a threadlike shape that is used by climbing plants for support and attachment, generally by twining around whatever it touches.) Leaves are exstipulate, alternate, simple palmately lobed or palmately compound.
Tendrils are present at 90 degrees to the leaf petioles at nodes. Many species have large, yellow or white flowers. Most of the plants in this Cucurbitaceae family are annual vines, but there are also woody lianas, thorny shrubs, and trees (Dendrosicyos). Squashes grow hanging from a network of stalks. Their great variety in colors, color patterns, and shapes-from light green or white to deep yellow, orange, and dark green, from solid to striped, and from flattened to cylindrical to crookneck varieties-combined with their special aroma and taste, offers humans a unique visual and culinary experience. While squash tend to be quite nutritious, with high levels of vitamins A and C, niacin, riboflavin, and iron, their attraction to humans extends beyond this to more internal and aesthetic values. Well known types of squash include the pumpkin and zucchini.Īlthough originating in the Americas, squash are now grown in most countries. Gourds are from the same family as squash. In North America, squash are loosely grouped into summer squash or winter squash, as well as autumn squash (another name is cheese squash) depending on whether they are harvested as immature fruits (summer squash) or mature fruits (autumn squash or winter squash). The name squash also is used for the edible fruit of any of these plants, which can vary considerably in shape, color, and size and is consumed as a vegetable. These plants, which originated in the Americas, are tendril-bearing plants characterized by hairy stems, unisexual flowers, and a fleshy fruit with a leathery rind that is a type of false berry called a pepo. Squash (plural squash or squashes) is the common name used for four species in the genus Cucurbita of the gourd family Cucurbitaceae: C. maxima - hubbard squash, buttercup squash
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