ISHS Acta Horticulturae 510: VII Eucarpia Meeting on Cucurbit Genetics and Breeding
FRUIT SHAPE, SIZE AND SEED YIELD IN CUCURBITA PEPO |
| Authors: | H. Nerson, Harry S. Paris, Effi P. Paris |
| Keywords: | Cucurbita pepo, cultivar-groups, gourd, pumpkin, squash, subspecies |
| Abstract:
Forty-two accessions of pumpkins, cocozelle, vegetable marrow, and zucchini squash (Cucurbita pepo ssp. pepo), and round gourds (C. pepo ssp. pepo and ssp. fraterna) were grown under field conditions in northern Israel. The mature (≈42 days past anthesis) fruits were collected, and they and their components were measured and weighed. The gourds had small, round fruits and had the smallest and fewest number of seeds per fruit. However, they had the highest ratio of seed weight-to-fruit weight. Together with the pumpkins, which are also round-fruited, they had the highest ratio of seed cavity volume-to-fruit volume. The seed cavity volume-to-fruit volume ratio decreased with increasing length of the fruit: the cocozelles, the longest of the squash, had the lowest ratio. Although pumpkins had the highest seed yield per fruit, together with the cocozelle squash they had the lowest ratio of seed yield-to-fruit weight. The results suggest that the evolution from small, round gourds to the large, round and to the elongate edible-fruited cultivar-groups exacted a cost on the proportion of seed mass-to-fruit mass. | |
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