Weird Squash Phenotypes

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Alan Kapuler inserted the idea into my mind that it's a good thing to grow closely related species together because of the possibility of an occasional natural hybrid showing up. I thought about that again today when I saw a squash in my moschata patch that looks like a maxima squash.

Here's what it looked like: Notice the classic moschata leaves, and the flared pentagonal stem which is another classic moschata trait. What the heck is up with that orange/yellow color? I've never saw that in a moschata squash before!


Here's a more archetypical moschata: Mottled leaves. Flared pentagonal stem.


And an archetypical maxima: Notice the round peduncle that is not flared. The leaves are plain. Fruit is yellow.


Yellow fruit is also showing up in the mixta patch: Notice the roundish non-flared peduncle and the sharp spotting on the leaves.


Yellow fruit on a pepo zucchini squash:


And finally, just to throw a wrinkle into the post... The other day I wrote that I have never seen a maxima squash with mottled leaves... Guess what showed up in the maxima patch during today's rainstorm?

Maxima squash with mottled leaves. Peduncle is the classic corky round non-flared stem.


Ain't that just like me? Irrigating during a rainstorm. That's what I do out here in the desert. The water flows down from the mountains whether or not it is raining. I may revisit this thread after the rain stops and I can pay closer attention to the phenotypes of the squash in the field. Summer monsoon. It was 79F this morning at 6 AM.

[philagardener]

Really cool phenotypes! It will be interesting to see how they turn out.

[jondear]

I've been wondering about my squash I planted this year. Descendants of sweet mama. (Kids?) I have seen them listed as pepos and maximas. They sure look and taste like a maxima to me. The other kabocha type I'm growing seems to have slightly different leaf shape to it. I guess I'll have to try to get some better pictures and learn how to post them here. Would be a lot easier from my laptop than my phone I'm guessing.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Aug 3, 2014 12:19:57 GMT -5 jondear said:

I've been wondering about my squash I planted this year. Descendants of sweet mama. (Kids?) I have seen them listed as pepos and maximas. They sure look and taste like a maxima to me.

The Internet image search that I did for "sweet mamma squash" showed a whole bunch of maxima squash.

[jondear]

What I'm finding odd is they grew along side burgess buttercup last year and none of the squash have a cup at all. Which I'm OK with, I just found it odd that at least a few didn't have any.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I've been studying phenotypes of squash leaves in my garden this week. The most consistent phenotype is in the maxima family. The vast majority are smooth rounded non-patterned leaves. I have found 3 plants which are slightly different...

One has a bit of a gray color to the leaves. One which I have already shown has a bit of mottling on the leaves. This one has a jagged edge to the leaves. In the lower left corner of the photo is what a normal maxima leaf looks like. I am flagging or marking the unusual plants so that I can plant higher numbers of them next year.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

There are lots of different mottling patterns on the moschata squash....


The mixta squash tend towards speckled leaves with a notched-margin...


The zucchini (pepo) squash seem to have lots of diversity in leaf shape and coloration. The leaves are generally lobed. Sometimes speckled, sometimes mottled, often plain.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I have been closely watching for unusual phenotypes among the squash species so that I can mark unusual plants. I intend to plant them in higher numbers next summer to increase the diversity of the squash patch.

I found one moschata squash plant today (out of about 100) that has lobed leaves. The others have smooth leaves.

[raymondo]

Quite different. More like the fig-leaf gourd.

[glenn10]

I have had some strange things pop up at our place or the years. We only grow a few squash types here, buttercup squash,zucchini,atlantic giant pumpkin. One year I did not select and hand pollinate the buttercups.....the next year was really neat. I didn't pay much attention to leaf patterns and such as they seemed to be normal green buttercups. They got bigger and bigger and some turned orange and became giant butter cup/pumpkins! It is really interesting how they got the orange trait when they ripened because the atlantic giant pumpkins start of orange from the get go. I will try and dig up a photo and post it. Speaking of posting pics how does one do so? There is no attachment icon jumping out at me.

Glenn

[philagardener]

Welcome, @glenn10 ! Glad to have you join us. To post an image, upload your picture to a sharing site (I currently am using Picasa) and then insert the image address in your response. (Use the "Reply" editor rather than the "Quick Reply" box for the best functionality.) It would be great to see your photos of those hybrids!

[glenn10]

 ok so this was from a few years ago the two squash in the foreground were from two different plants the green one was like a big buttercup but was soft and did not keep well, the orange one same thing was soft and did not keep so they ended up as chicken food. There was another one for which I cannot find the photo, it was really big and was green and yellow. I will see if I can find a pic of it. But in the end it seems these accidental crosses although neat were not really of any use to us so we did not save any seed and went back to making careful selections for seed keeping.

Glenn

[steev]

I assume that what aren't obviously squashes are your lovely family; mazeltov!

[glenn10]

Yes steev those are ma peeps ;-). We have this family tradition which started after our first son was born where we stick'em in the squash or whatever we harvested at the time and that is our so called family photo for the year . No professional photos at our house!
Family is the main reason I grow what I grow.I want to feed them something that hasn't been assaulted with chemicals I have a hard time pronouncing. And I want them to know where food comes from, most kids think food comes from Costco.

Glenn

[flowerweaver]

That's a wonderful reason to grow your own food @glenn10. When people visit I am often reminded of the disconnect people have with their food. I remember once one of our egg customers brought her husband to show him our free-ranging chickens, who happened to be taking a dust bath down in the dry creek when they arrived. He was utterly shocked (and perhaps repulsed) they were so 'dirty'. I didn't dare show him what the root vegetables were doing! Another person thought when you planted a vegetable it lived forever, not understanding most of what we eat as food goes through an annual cycle and must be replanted.