There are winter melons, pumpkins and watermelons, so why is there no "north melon"?

Ever since childhood, this editor was deeply troubled by one question - why are there winter (east) melons, pumpkins and watermelons, but no "north melon"? In the complete database of higher plants of China, we found the name "north melon", but what I never expected was that this "north melon" is actually a type of pumpkin...

The three brothers of the pumpkin family

In the broad sense, pumpkin refers to plants of the Cucurbita genus (Cucurbita Linn.) in the gourd family, which has three common cultivated species: Cucurbita moschata, Cucurbita pepo and Cucurbita maxima.

Cucurbita moschata is what we usually call pumpkin in the narrow sense, Cucurbita pepo is zucchini, and Cucurbita maxima is the north melon.

In North America, the members of the thriving Cucurbita genus family are collectively called "Squash". Looking at the picture below, you will understand why the "Cucurbita genus" is called "the most prominent family in the gourd family".

The even broader sense of "pumpkin"

The fruits of the three pumpkin brothers vary greatly in shape. To distinguish them by appearance, you need to look at the fruit stalk and the trace of the floral envelope at the top of the fruit, commonly known as the "navel".

The pumpkin's fruit stalk is enlarged with five ridges and the navel is concave; the zucchini's fruit stalk has obvious five ridges and the navel bulges outward; the north melon's fruit stalk is cylindrical and the navel is a small dot.

The giants among pumpkins are actually all "north melons"

The "north melon" is a semi-wild plant. Because of its low yield, and because it lacks the sweetness of watermelon, the fresh fragrance of winter melon, and the high yield of other Cucurbita species, people are not very familiar with it.

An unripe north melon

The "north melon" originated in South American countries such as Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, and has been sown all over the world. The Chinese winter squash was probably introduced from India, so it is also called "Cucurbita maxima".

The north melon and the pumpkin are very similar, whether in the plant or the flowers, and even the fruits are not easy to distinguish without careful observation. In fact, the difference between pumpkin and north melon lies mainly in the fruit: the pumpkin's stalk has obvious five ridges, while the north melon's is round; where the stalk joins the fruit, the pumpkin swells into a cap, while the north melon is clean and smooth.

The top of the pumpkin fruit is a bowl-shaped scar left by the fallen flower, while the north melon has only a small round dot, or merely a ring formed by the shrinkage of the stigma and calyx.

If you don't know about the north melon, then you surely know about the "giant pumpkin growing competitions" often held abroad. We often see online reports that some farmer grew a giant pumpkin of ××× kilograms, setting a new world record.

But the "pumpkin" that can grow that big is actually a "north melon", because only it has the talent to grow that large, as can be seen from its scientific name "Cucurbita maxima" (maxima originally means extreme point, the greatest amount).

And the so-called "Halloween giant pumpkins" are mostly "north melons" too - this thing has a shape similar to pumpkin, but can grow to an astonishing size, as if tailor-made for Halloween.

However, a "north melon" grown to such a size no longer has any value for eating; the rind and flesh have already begun to become fibrous, otherwise how could it support such a large body? Such a giant melon is merely a plaything bred by humans.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the dialect names for "north melon" in various parts of China were very confused. Some people called "zucchini" "north melon", some called the entire pumpkin family "north melon", and in some places winter melon was called "north melon".

Therefore, in the national standard GB 8854-1988 "Vegetable Names (Part One)" issued in 1988, "winter squash" was used as the official name for the north melon, and it has been used to this day.

"Pumpkin" can actually help quit drug addiction?

Among the pumpkin brothers, the "Cucurbita moschata" we are familiar with had its wild ancestor native to Mexico, North America and Guatemala, and later spread to Eurasia. Because pumpkins can be stored for a long time, the Portuguese brought pumpkins on their ocean voyages to China. Pumpkins very likely first landed in China through the ports of Guangdong and Fujian, and began to be cultivated in the vast regions of East Asia.

Illustration of pumpkin in Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica"

In the era when opium poisoned the people, Chinese people once made an astonishing discovery: eating pumpkin made them not want to smoke opium. Pumpkin can treat opium addiction, and there are many historical records, for example, the "Yingde County Annals" from the Daoguang period records: "The white ones, cooked with sugar added, can break the opium addiction."

The "Quyang County Annals" from the Guangxu period also records: "Eating pumpkin and its flowers and vines can neutralize the poison of opium poppy." But exactly how many people were treated is not clearly recorded.

North melon and pumpkin are both gifts from Mr. Columbus

In fact, whether pumpkin, north melon or zucchini, the fact that they can appear on our tables today is all thanks to the great navigator Columbus, who discovered the New World during the Age of Discovery from the late 15th century to the early 16th century.

The American continent is rich in biological resources and has a great variety of plants. The ancient indigenous peoples of America, completely isolated from the rest of the world, domesticated, bred and cultivated more than 60 kinds of crops. According to records in Mayan documents, at that time 25 large pumpkins had the same market value as one adult slave.

Columbus's first voyage to the American continent triggered a large-scale century-defining sea voyage. After the Old World (Europe, Asia, Africa) and the New World (America) were connected, the various exchanges that followed brought enormous transformations.

These exchanges are also called the Columbian Exchange.

Columbus's discovery and the Columbian Exchange made enormous contributions to our great Celestial Empire. Can you imagine how earth-shaking the changes on our dining tables would be if our Chinese cuisine lacked the gifts of nature such as potatoes, corn, tomatoes, chili peppers and pumpkins...?

If there were no potatoes, the national dish Big Plate Chicken would lose its soul... If there were no tomatoes, scrambled eggs with tomatoes would lose its charm...

If there were no chili peppers, then what would happen to Chongqing hot pot, boiled fish, Hunan chopped chili fish head, Jiangxi chili stir-fried pork, and spicy chicken with more chilies than meat? What would happen to "Lao Gan Ma", which has already gone abroad and become popular worldwide? In the end, even duck necks and stinky tofu would lose their brilliance!