Cucurbita pepo L. (S and C-Am.) – A common but always ephemeral food refuse alien. First documented in 1901 in Havelange and nowadays seen every year. Most records are from rubbish dumps. Sometimes it is seen on river banks as well.
Cucurbita pepo is by far the most common Cucurbitaceae species on dumps. It is the northernmost representative of the genus and easily produces fruit in western Europe. However, a future naturalization is rather unlikely.
Two distinct forms (only distinguishable in fruit) are encountered on dumps: ornamental gourds with fruits that are extremely variable in colour, size and shape and vegetable marrow with cylindrical or globose fruits.
According to Nesom (2011) Cucurbita pepo should be divided in two species, C. pepo s.str. and C. melopepo L.
Selected literature:
Decker DS. (1988) Origin(s), evolution and systematics of Cucurbita pepo (Cucurbitaceae). Econ. Bot. 42(1): 4-15.
Decker Walters D.S., Staub J.E., Chung S.M., Nakata E. & Quemada H.D. (2002) Diversity in free-living populations of Cucurbita pepo (Cucurbitaceae) as assessed by random amplified polymorphic DNA. Syst. Bot. 27(1): 19-28.
Nesom G. (2011) Towards consistency of taxonomic rank in wild/domesticated Cucurbitaceae. Phytoneuron 2011-13: 1-33. [available online at: http://www.phytoneuron.net/PhytoN-CucurbConsistency.pdf]
Paris H.S. (1986) A proposed subspecific classification for Cucurbita pepo. Phytologia 61(3): 133-138.
Paris H.S. (2000) Paintings (1769-1774) by A. N. Duchesne and the history of Cucurbita pepo. Ann. Bot. (UK) 85(6): 815-830.
Teppner H. (2000) Cucurbita pepo (Cucurbitaceae): history, seed coat types, thin coated seeds and their genetics. Phyton (Austria) 40(1): 1-42.