The Story of Zucchini

Zucchini is a fruit type of Cucurbita pepo, not its own binomial. Pumpkin and some acorn squash can be the same species; butternut and kabocha may be other Cucurbita species.

How it was found

Kew maps Cucurbita pepo as a cultigen from Mexico. Native to: Mexico Central, Gulf, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest. Introduced widely, including California and many other U.S. states, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. USDA GRIN lists native populations in the United States (Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi) and northern Mexico (Nuevo León, Tamaulipas), plus widely cultivated.

UCCE Inyo/Mono Master Gardeners (Summer Squash): squash originated in the Americas and is one of the major and earliest plants domesticated in Mexico and North America, along with maize and beans; remains of squash seeds, rind and stems found in caves in Mexico dated to 8,000 BC. That page also describes later U.S. domestication of similar C. pepo (not modern zucchini) in Missouri, Florida, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee and Maine, with a wild ancestor the Ozark gourd still present. UCCE Riverside MG: squash originated in Mexico and Central America.

Zucchini as a fruit type: cultivated and improved in the very late 1800s in Italy, near Milan (UCCE Inyo/Mono). The 8,000 BC cave remains are of squash, not modern zucchini.

How people used it

Kew: used as animal food, a poison, a medicine and invertebrate food, has environmental uses and for fuel and food. UC IPM: summer squash (zucchini, yellow, scallop) is Cucurbita pepo; blossoms are also edible. UCCE Riverside MG: scientific name Cucurbita pepo; zucchini listed among summer-squash types. UCCE Inyo/Mono: botanically fruits because they contain the seeds; summer squash is harvested before the rind hardens.

Kew also lists medicinal use.

Timeline

1. 8,000 BC (squash remains)

   Cave squash, not modern zucchini

   UCCE Inyo/Mono Master Gardeners: remains of squash seeds, rind and stems were found in caves in Mexico and were dated to 8,000 BC. Same page: squash originated in the Americas; one of the major and earliest plants domesticated in Mexico and North America, along with maize and beans. Those early squashes were not modern zucchini.

   UCCE Inyo/Mono Master Gardeners — Summer Squash

2. Cultigen from Mexico (Kew)

   Kew’s native sentence

   Kew POWO: native range is as a cultigen from Mexico; Native to the six Mexico regions listed above. Its life form is an annual of the subtropical biome. GRIN’s native table also includes several U.S. states.

   Kew POWO; USDA GRIN

3. 1753

   Named in Species Plantarum

   Kew and USDA GRIN: Cucurbita pepo L. first published in Species Plantarum: 1010 (1753); species accepted. GRIN: Sp. pl. 2:1010. 1753. Zucchini stays this species.

   Kew POWO; USDA GRIN

4. Very late 1800s (Italy)

   Little squash near Milan

   UCCE Inyo/Mono MG: “Zucchini” were cultivated and improved in the very late 1800s in Italy, near Milan. Zucca is the Italian word for squash; zucchina means “little squash.” In England, Ireland and France the same thing is called a courgette.

   UCCE Inyo/Mono Master Gardeners — Summer Squash

5. Early 1920s

   Italian immigrants bring it back

   UCCE Inyo/Mono MG: Italian immigrants then brought the new improved version of squash back to the US in the early 1920s. A European fruit type of an American species, returning across the Atlantic.

   UCCE Inyo/Mono Master Gardeners — Summer Squash

Cool to know

Growing notes for this plant live on the Plant Wiki.