A N F Keys
1 Blades lobed or toothed, sinuses less than to midblade; stem and leaf axes scabrous; staminate and pistillate flowers only one per axil; corolla 55+ mm long, yellow; berry (pepo) smooth or rough but never spinescent, indehiscent, with many yellowish tan, flat seeds .. Cucurbita
1' Blades often deeply lobed, many sinuses below midblade; stem and leaf axes not scabrous; staminate flowers in racemes or panicles of racemes with or without a basal flower pistillate; corolla to 17 mm long, white to whitish or greenish white; capsule spinescent covered with sharp prickles, opening irregularly at top, with several large, brown seeds .. Marah [pics]
NB. Marah fabacea (Naudin) Greene, California man-root, is a trailing, tuber- and tendril-bearing perennial vine that was collected by Andy Sanders at a locality on the northern edge of the range near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. This species is generally regarded in southern California as a desert species, and can be distinguished fairly easily from vegetative, flower, and fruit features; it has 5-lobed or 7-lobed, flowers that are more yellow or cream-colored, and fruits that are smaller and spheric with shorter prickles on the surface and with only one seed per chamber.
1 Perennials with trailing shoots arising from massive tuber; leaves with petioles 35−175 mm long and triangular to triangular-ovate, gray-green blades; flowers 90−120 mm across; sepals 9−25 mm long; pepos spheric, 65−75 × 70−85 mm, smooth, initially dark green and striped turning bright yellow with a hard cover and drying light-weight .. Cucurbita foetidissima [pics]
1' Annuals; leaves with petioles 200−370 mm long and roundish, green blades; flowers 120−180 mm across; sepals 25−39 mm long; pepos various shapes but rarely spheric, rough and variously ribbed or angled, drying heavy (cultivated squashes) .. Cucurbita pepo var. pepo [pics]
The text of the above keys used with permission from
A Naturalist's Flora of the Santa Monica Mountains and Simi Hills, California
© Copyright
Barry A. Prigge and Arthur C. Gibson
2013