We now were almost to the site of first plant I had come to collect. However first we threaded our way through the thick brush. We stomped down the Greenbriar, pushed aside the Mare’s-tail, and watched for large animal holes as we crossed the now dry creek.
Ahhh, we made it cross. Then Jeanne stopped to admire the really tall Sideoats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula)!
A plant on the smaller side, a Dodder (Cuscata) was parasitizing the Stiff Sunflower (Helianthus pauciflorus)! Almost there now.
There it was! Right where we had left it. LOL. So when we found it on the first visit, I thought a Cucurbita hmmm. Then I started to looking at photos closer after getting home from the first visit. Then I knew I had to come back for a collection.
The flower!
Side view!
Unbranched tendrils.
The unripe pepo, i.e. the fruit!
More pepos! It was interesting how the fruit’s outer skin had started to wrinkle after detaching from the live plant.
Preparing and pressing for the herbarium. Oh now you want to know what it keyed to right? It was Cucurbita texana (Texas Gourd) in FNCT. However I am going with the current name listed in the World Online Flora of Cucurbita melopepo subsp. texana.
To finally choose this as the species, I read many papers and checked all the floras that I have access to. On the way, I discovered the Cucurbita genus is quite “messy” in the literature. All of the domestic squashes, pumpkins, and cucumbers to mention a few, all came from wild Cucurbita species. Of course there are many opinions and studies about the Cucurbita. In fact my eyes were blurry from reading all that technical stuff over the course of several days. Indeed as they say, it is the journey. 🙂
I think we could shorten the name to texas pepo!
I like that😊
What wonderful little gourds. Looks like the dodder has about covered that plant.
It’s a cute little cucurbit!
Cute little gourds. Great article on dinosaurs and birds.