Cucurbita maxima Duchesne, Essai Hist. Nat. Courges

Verloove, Filip & Ardenghi, Nicola M. G., 2015, New distributional records of non-native vascular plants in northern Italy, Natural History Sciences 2 (1), pp. 5-14 : 8

Cucurbita maxima Duchesne, Essai Hist. Nat. Courges : 7. 1786.

( Cucurbitaceae )

Confirmation of casual neophyte for the flora of Piemonte ( Conti et al., 2005; Celesti-Grapow et al., 2009a).

ITALY. Piemonte. Prov. Vercelli: Vercelli, city center close to river Sesia , roadside, 07.09.2014, F. Verloove 11069 ( BR) .

Doubtlessly an ephemeral alien, this species unlike in other parts of Europe, is frequently cultivated in northern Italy, its fruits being used in different traditional dishes. It is distinguished from the latter by its peduncle that is terete and becoming corky in fruit. Its leaves are almost entire or very shallowly lobed and softly hairy above. C. pepo , in contrast, has peduncles that are deeply furrowed in fruit (conspicuously angled, not corky) and its leaves are deeply 5-lobed and hirsute hairy above.

Cucurbita maxima was considered doubtful for Piemonte by Conti et al. (2005) and not listed from that region by Celesti-Grapow et al. (2009a).