How do you recognise Courgette (Cucurbita pepo)?

Leaf

Liliane Roubaudi, Tela Botanica · CC BY-SA 2.0

Courgette

Cucurbita pepo L.

Also known as: Zucchini, Marrow, Summer squash

Family: Cucurbitaceae

Bushy habit or trailing stems several metres long

Grown in vegetable gardens, rich, well-drained soils

Flowering: June – September

Full sun

Not hardy, frost-sensitive, grown as an annual

❓ How do you recognise this plant?

The courgette is deliberately harvested immature — left to ripen fully, it would become a large, hard-skinned squash, like its close relative the pumpkin (same species, Cucurbita pepo). The courgette has an angular stem and is harvested young; the giant pumpkin has a soft, cylindrical stem and is harvested fully ripe, often much larger.

🍃 Leaves

Large, palmate, rough, often mottled with white

🌸 Flowers

Large trumpet-shaped yellow-orange flowers; monoecious plant (separate male and female flowers)

🍎 Fruits

Elongated or round fruit, green, yellow or striped depending on variety, harvested immature

🪵 Bark

Thick stem, upright or trailing depending on variety, slightly prickly to the touch

🗺️ Distribution

Native to Central America; grown throughout France

🐝 Value for pollinators

Large, very nectar-rich flowers, essential for bees to set fruit in non-parthenocarpic varieties

✂️ Horticultural uses

Very productive vegetable-garden crop; the male flowers are also edible (courgette flower fritters)

⚠️ Possible toxicity

Fruit edible; some courgettes grown from poorly selected seed or under stress can accumulate very bitter, toxic cucurbitacins — never eat if the taste is bitter

⚠️ Look-alike species

Courgette

Cucurbita pepo

Giant pumpkin

Cucurbita maxima

The courgette has an angular stem and is harvested young; the giant pumpkin has a soft, cylindrical stem and is harvested fully ripe, often much larger.

Courgette

Cucurbita pepo

Butternut squash

Cucurbita moschata

The courgette has a hard, angular fruit stalk that stays slender and does not flare where it joins the fruit; the butternut squash has an equally hard and angular stalk, but it flares widely into a star shape at its point of attachment to the fruit.

🌿 Other Cucurbitaceae to discover

ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.

🌱 This database is constantly evolving — species and information are added and corrected regularly. Spotted a mistake? Report it below.