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Name That Plant!

Mystery Squash

12 years ago

Any guesses? I'm thinking some kind of cross. This plant started growing in my friends yard in Western Colorado. Appears to be some type of squash, the plant itself is massive. The fruits are light green, with dark green stripes and some of them have had a bright yellow band around the middle that fades out to the green stripes as it grows. They taste like a zucchini but they're the size of a watermelon and not shapped like any zucchini I've ever seen. He's planted zucchini before, but not any other type of squash that I know of. Thanks for your help!

Here is a link that might be useful: Mystery Squash pictures

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Comments (5)

fatamorgana2121
12 years ago
I would guess an immature winter squash some kind. Hubbard squash and other squash varieties can be large and definitely watermelon-sized. Could also be a cross of some kind. Winter squash can be eaten when very immature like summer squash - yes, they would taste like zucchini.

The yellow doesn't appear to be part of a color pattern to me. I would think some disease, damage, or soil deficiency but I could be wrong.

FataMorgana
MCKC
Original Author
12 years ago
I've posted some additional pictures of a much smaller squash from the plant. The yellow is a complete band around the middle and then as the squash grows it fades to the green with stripes. It appears on every one of the squash. The smaller squash are smooth, but as they grow they get bumps on them like a crookneck squash has.
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looks like your butternut pumpkin got X-ed up last year, what you have may taste good; ok; or terrible. we will be growing 2 types of pumpkins together a kent/jap and qld blue, now they are saved seeds so we can only hope they are true to form. i think i heard if someone else grows a pumpkin within about 2 kilometers the bees could X-pollinate and you would never know, trick is if you want seeds is to bag the new buds that you want for pollination before they open when they open (male & female) hand pollinate then bag again to protect against bees whatever accidentally getting involved, next day once the flower has closed a drooped you can remove the bag. had some X-d up pumpkins just fit for pumpkin soup and others for wood carvings. len Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page
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A liitle fuzzy, but appears to be a squash. Squash cross readily within species so this would be a mutt of some type. Possibilties include acorn - zucchini cross. Probably came from you compost. If youl remember what you may thrown in there, you might be able to narrow it down a bit.
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Just a follow up... After trying to cook with very young squash from this mysterious plant and finding it not tasty,and also tasting some true tromboncino that I had in my garden and finding those delicious, I yanked out all of the mystery squash vines. Let me tell you, this was a project.. The vines were extremely tough and I saw no evidence of SVB, nor squash bugs. The main vines from which the squash grow off were very hard, and had rooted themselves into the ground with some tenacity. I was surprised. Even though this was obviously a hybrid of tromboncino and something else, whatever tromboncino genes were still in that plant were no joke. I used my brand new Fiskar clippers to cut these vine apart and loosen them from the ground, and after a while, those clippers started to struggle to cut the vines. I had about 20 mystery squash that I cut to reveal the seeds for the birds and then put on the compost pile. Meanwhile, my other "true" tromboncino plants are doing well, no bugs yet but some brave deer have developed a taste for them an are attacking those plants. If it isn't one thing, it's another...
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Just as an observation, the difference between a winter squash and a pumpkin is.. well.. nada. We call some winter squash pumpkins because they're orange or it's tradition. Not because there is any culinary or botanical difference (there's neither). Now, to answer your original question it could be a hybrid. were the seeds ones you saved or volunteers or were they newly purchased? The shape looks similar to a buttercup some varieties but it's not something I recognize.
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fatamorgana2121
12 years ago
I can't see the album without logging in. Can you include the pictures here?

FataMorgana
MCKC
Original Author
12 years ago
I put it in a new album, hopefully they'll come up. Garden web won't allow me to post more than one picture and it has to be ridiculously small. The skin stays thin like a zuccihini even when the squash gets quite large. The small squash is pear shaped, the shape gets more pronounced as it grows.

Here is a link that might be useful: new photos
fatamorgana2121
12 years ago
Perhaps a cross of a green and yellow summer squash types.

FataMorgana

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