Meet Pepo

As promised, I bring here a photograph of the sole surviving product of our pumpkin plant profusion. The other two fell prey to squirrels.

Now it turns out that this splendid, if small, specimen is an eccentric acorn squash, officially known as Cucurbita pepo. But, of course, as the experts know (but I was a bit shocked when Brigitte first tutored me) the “squash” name should not confuse us. The pumpkin is itself a squash. Hence my long persistence in clinging to the “pumpkin” designation, even after I noticed that the leaves were ever so slightly different than last year, was perfectly all right. This variety has Mexican origins.

Pepo is eccentric because it is technically known as a winter squash, but it decided to appear in summer. I am happy to follow up one sequence of development this past summer, the magical metamorphosis of a caterpillar into the splendid Black Swallowtail butterfly, with the presentation here of the last chapter of another process, a pumpkin that morphed into a squash.

Viva Pepo!