Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Vine

General: Grayish green, perennial, prostrate vine with deep fusiform root; stems strongly ribbed, rather densely pilose with small rough projections on angles in age; tendrils nonpetiolate, mostly 3-branched, retrorsely hispid, gland tipped, small, weak.

Leaves: Blades palmately cleft to middle or deeper, 3-9 cm long and about as wide or slightly narrower, conically appressed-hispid above, densely so along veins, appressed hispid below and with small rough projections, lobes lanceolate, acuminate or acute, occasionally irregularly sublobed; petioles on mature leaves equaling or exceeding blades.

Flowers: Staminate flowers 5-7 cm long, pubescent on peduncles 3-5 cm long; calyx narrowly campanulate, tube 3-3.5 cm long, lobes 4-6 mm long, subulate; pubescent ovary.

Fruits: Pepo depressed globose, dull light green and mottled, narrowly and faintly 10-striped.

Ecology: Found in sandy soils and on rocky slopes below 3,000 ft (914 m); flowers April-September.

Notes: Similar to C. digitata, but the lobes of the leaves are more stout in C. palmata. Similarly foul smelling oils.

Ethnobotany: Some indications that the seeds were either eaten or used for oil historically, some references suggest they were boiled or roasted and then pounded to a mush, pulp, or a meal.

Etymology: Cucurbita is the Latin name for gourd, while palmata means palmate, in reference to the leaves.

Synonyms: Cucurbita californica

Editor: SBuckley, 2010