The Phactors went foraging for apples and squashes, and having said something about apples, here's a Friday fabulous flower offering about flowers at the stage of seed dispersal, fruits. And in this case some of the largest fruits, squashes. All of these are in the genus Cucurbita, in one of four species. C. pepo, C. mixta, C. moshata, and C. maxima. Don't ask TPP to sort all these varieties into the correct species for you, it isn't easy or logical in many respects because you can't really go by color or shape or size. At any rate fruits of all four species are shown here, the rest is left to you. A lot of genetic diversity is represented here, and yet only 4 species! This pile of squashes can be seen at the Great Pumpkin Patch in Arthur, Illinois, though the end of October. No you can't have the big blue pumpkin at the bottom center; bad things will happen if you move it. You can also find seeds for most or all of these from Heritage Seeds at the same link. They also have the best pumpkin ice cream, but you can't get it online. Our gardens are too small and too shady for squashes, so our supply of winter squash is purchased here. Bins and bins and bins of them, all labeled and sorted for their primary uses, some so big they are hard to lift.
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