Pumpkin
Cucurbita maxima · Gourd family
Plant portrait
Pumpkins develop trailing stems, broad leaves and yellow flowers. The model shows a ribbed orange fruit; varieties of this squash also come in other shapes, colours and textures.
Harvested part
The fruit flesh of varieties grown as vegetables.
What to watch for
Follow stems, flowers and then swelling fruits. The variety’s expected colour and the firming skin are useful things to observe; the orange model does not confirm actual maturity.
Growth stages of the pumpkin
Plotilo illustrates the pumpkin in 7 stages in 3D: seed, small sprout, young plant, growing, flowering, developing fruit and harvest. The models show typical shapes; they do not predict how long growth takes.
- Seed
Starting from a seed. It is shown on the surface to make it visible in this illustration.
- Small sprout
A short first stem and its first small leaves emerge.
- Young plant
The young plant carries more leaves and starts to take its own shape.
- Growing
Leaves and stems develop. Their shape depends on the species.
- Flowering
Flowers are shown before fruit begins to form.
- Developing fruit
Fruit begins to develop on the plant.
- Harvest
An illustration of the harvested part. Roots are made visible for clarity; this image does not confirm actual maturity.
Same botanical family
Same botanical family as the pumpkin (the gourd family): the courgette, the cucumber, the squash, the bottle gourd, the melon and the watermelon. Gardeners usually avoid growing the same family in the same spot several years in a row: that is the idea behind crop rotation.