Your wish list — the plush you mean to keep.
Press Add to a collection on any plush in the shop: start a collection of your own, or keep it on your wish list. Sign in and both follow you to any device.
Open my wish list →A pumpkin grows on a plant, from a flower. Here are three true things about what a pumpkin really is.
A pumpkin is a cultivated winter squash in the genus Cucurbita. Botanically, its fruit is a type of berry known as a pepo.
SourcePumpkin plants make both male and female flowers. The flowers are usually fertilised by bees.
SourceThe oldest evidence of Cucurbita pepo, one of the pumpkin plants, is pieces of pumpkin found in Mexico. They are dated between 7,000 and 5,500 BC.
SourceGrowing giants
A giant pumpkin is a kind of squash, Cucurbita maxima, grown for its huge size. Giant pumpkins commonly weigh from 68 kilograms to over 910 kilograms. People have been growing giant pumpkins since the 1800s, and world records began at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. From seed to harvest usually takes 130 to 140 days, and a giant pumpkin may grow by up to 23 kilograms in a single day. Many recent giant pumpkins have been of a kind called Dill's Atlantic Giant, chosen by a grower named Howard Dill. Every year, about 10,000 growers try to grow a champion pumpkin. Several thousand of them make it to official weigh-offs.
SourceLanterns
The name jack-o'-lantern was first used for ignis fatuus, known as a will-o'-the-wisp in English folklore. Later it also meant a man with a lantern, or a night watchman. In the 19th century, turnips or mangel wurzels were hollowed out to act as lanterns and often carved with faces. They were used on Halloween in parts of England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland. It is believed that the custom of making jack-o'-lanterns at Halloween began in Ireland and Britain. In American English, the name was first used for carved pumpkins in 1837. In the United States and Canada, the carved pumpkin was first linked with the harvest season in general, before it became a symbol of Halloween.
SourceCitrullus lanatus
The watermelon is a scrambling, trailing, vine-like plant in the family Cucurbitaceae. Its fruit is a large berry with a firm rind. Watermelons were grown in Egypt by 2000 BCE. Their sweet, juicy flesh is usually deep red to pink.
SourceCucumis sativus
The cucumber plant climbs its supports with thin, spiralling tendrils. Botanically, its fruit is a pepo, a type of berry with seeds and an outer rind. The cucumber comes from Asia and has been grown for at least 3,000 years.
SourceLuffa aegyptiaca
The sponge gourd is a vine native to South and Southeast Asia, with striking yellow flowers. Its young fruit is eaten as a vegetable. The fully ripened fruit is strongly fibrous and cannot be eaten, and it is used to make scrubbing bath sponges.
Source