Friends of Ganondagan

Part 2
Tonia Loran-Galban but oh hey, what about Cucumbers being a member of the Cucurbita family?
Rowen White Tonia Loran-Galban they are in the Cucurbita family but in a different genus than squash and melons. When you look at a plants Latin name, first name is genus, second is species. Two varieties or crop types will only cross if they have same first and last name meaning both same genus and species. So, most cucumbers are Cucumis sativa so they have different first and last name than all the winter squashes and cantaloupes.
Rowen White Does that make sense? They are all distant relatives but not closely enough related to cross pollinate.
Tonia Loran-Galban yes, totally makes perfect sense! I'm very happy to have this information. I will be sharing
Rowen White and your Hubbard squash are Cucurbita maxima. So, you could even grow other types of squash hat are not in that species (like a Canada crookneck or butternut which is a Cucurbita moschata) and the two varieties wouldn't cross. You could also grow a pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) and all three squash varieties wouldn't cross because they are different species (different last name). Only squashes with same genus and species (same first and last Latin name) will cross pollinate. So you could grow 3 varieties of Haudenosaunee heritage seed varieties; a buffalo creek squash (Cucurbita maxima) a Canada crookneck (Cucurbita mochata) and a long pie pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) all in the same garden in close proximity and still get pure and true to type seed from all three. Our ancestors knew what they were doing in the garden, Indigenous science at its most flavorful.
Rowen White These are the types of mini gourds that will cross with pumpkins and other varieties that are in the Cucurbita pepo species. https://www.seedsavers.org/gourd-mixture-gourdManage
Gourd, Gourd Mixture
SEEDSAVERS.ORG
Tonia Loran-Galban I got a reply from the "Let's Get Gourding" community: Lee Becker Strohm wrote "Squash flowers, which are yellow, bloom during the day, gourd flowers, which are white, bloom at night. I've never had a cross between the two." 🙂"
Rowen White Yep exactly. The Lagenaria gourds have white flowers that bloom at night. Only the mini gourds pictured above here are actually in the same genus and species as Cucurbita pepo (pumpkins and zucchini's)!
Tonia Loran-Galban Niaweh! (Thank You), Rowen I will share your information! Oneh (bye)
Rowen White sure feel free to share. Glad I can help