Skip to content
Grow In Backyard
Vegetables

How Many Varieties of Pumpkins Are There — 150 and Up

How many varieties of pumpkins are there runs past 150 named types across 5 Cucurbita species. Which group yours belongs to, and what each is good for.

By Zakaria 3 min read Save to Pinterest — opens Pinterest in a new tab
A market display of many pumpkin and squash varieties in orange, cream and blue-green on wooden pallets
Photo: jobbe, Pixabay Content License, via Pixabay
On this page

The honest answer is that nobody has a firm figure, because “pumpkin” is a kitchen word rather than a botanical one. Over 150 named varieties are in common cultivation, and they belong to five species that behave quite differently in a garden.

The five species

What the species tells you before the variety does
SpeciesStemFleshKeepsKnown for
C. pepoHard, ridged, 5-sidedThin, watery2–3 monthsCarving, courgette, acorn
C. maximaSoft, round, corkyThick, variable5–6 monthsGiants, Hubbard, Kabocha
C. moschataHard, flared at fruitDense, sweet4–6 monthsButternut, canned pumpkin
C. argyrospermaHard, flaredCoarse, bland3–4 monthsSeed crops, cushaw
C. ficifoliaHardFibrous, whiteOver a yearPerennial, fig-leaf gourd

1. Cucurbita pepo — the species most people picture. Jack-o’-lantern types such as Connecticut Field and Howden, the small pie pumpkins, acorn squash, delicata, spaghetti squash, courgettes and most ornamental gourds all sit here. Fast, bushy or short-vined, and the first to be hit by powdery mildew and squash vine borer.

2. Cucurbita maxima — the giants. Atlantic Giant, Big Max, and also Hubbard, Buttercup, Kabocha and Red Kuri. Long, rambling vines and the best keepers of the group. The soft round stem is the giveaway, and it is also the weak point: it rots in storage if the fruit is carried by it.

3. Cucurbita moschata — the cook’s species. Butternut, Long Island Cheese, Musquée de Provence, Seminole. Sweeter and drier than either of the above, the most resistant to vine borer and mildew, and the best choice in hot humid climates. Most commercially canned pumpkin is moschata.

4. Cucurbita argyrosperma — cushaw and the green-striped types, grown through Mexico and the American south. Grown mostly for seed rather than flesh, and genuinely drought-tolerant.

5. Cucurbita ficifolia — fig-leaf gourd. A perennial in frost-free climates, with black seeds and white fibrous flesh that keeps for well over a year. Mainly a curiosity outside Latin America.

Why the variety count is soft

Three things keep the number unfixable.

  • The word is cultural. A fruit that is a pumpkin in the United States is a squash in Australia and a courge in France. Nothing about the plant changes.
  • Varieties are continually created and lost. Seed Savers Exchange and similar collections hold hundreds of varieties that no commercial catalogue lists.
  • Within a species, everything crosses. Two pepo varieties twenty feet apart will produce seed that is neither one, which is how many named varieties started.

Note

Cross-pollination does not change the fruit on the plant this year. The flesh you eat is the mother plant’s tissue; only the seed inside carries the cross. If you want to save true seed, grow one variety per species, or hand-pollinate and tape the flowers.

Picking by what you want from it

  • Carving — any pepo field pumpkin. Thin walls are a feature here.
  • Pie, soup, roasting — moschata first, then a small pepo pie variety. Avoid anything grown for size.
  • Storing through winter — maxima, cured 10 days at warm temperatures and kept at 50–55°F.
  • Hot, humid summers — moschata, for the borer resistance alone.
  • Breaking a record — Atlantic Giant, one fruit per plant, and a great deal of water.

Common questions

How many types of pumpkin are there in total?

Over 150 named varieties are in general cultivation, and seed collections hold many hundreds more. The number is soft because pumpkin is a culinary word rather than a botanical one — it covers particular varieties of five Cucurbita species, and the same plant is a pumpkin in one country and a squash in another. The useful count is the five species, because those predict flavour, keeping and growth habit.

What is the difference between a pumpkin and a squash?

Nothing botanical. Both are Cucurbita, and which name a fruit gets is a matter of culture and shape — round and orange with a firm stem tends to be called a pumpkin, everything else a squash. A butternut and a jack-o'-lantern are no more closely related than a butternut and a courgette.

Which pumpkin is best for pie?

A small, dense-fleshed variety rather than a carving pumpkin. Sugar Pie and New England Pie are the standards; Cucurbita moschata types such as Long Island Cheese and the butternut group are sweeter still and less watery, which is why most canned pumpkin is moschata rather than the orange field pumpkin people picture.

Can pumpkins cross-pollinate with each other?

Within a species, readily — two Cucurbita pepo varieties grown side by side will cross. Across species it is uncommon and usually sterile. This does not affect the fruit you harvest this year, only the seed inside it, so saving seed from a garden with several varieties gives unpredictable results next season.

What is the largest pumpkin variety?

Atlantic Giant, a Cucurbita maxima. Competition specimens pass 2,700 lb, and even casually grown plants produce fruit of several hundred pounds. The flesh is pale, watery and bland, which is the trade-off: maxima is the species that gets big, and the giant varieties within it have been selected for nothing else.

Backyard Weekly

Know what to plant, week by week

Join the weekly email for seasonal jobs, fixes for what is going wrong, and gear worth buying.

Not ready to subscribe? The planting calendar is free and needs no email.

By subscribing you agree to our privacy policy. Grow In Backyard will never sell your address.

Keep reading