About Cucurbita digitata A.Gray
Cucurbita digitata A.Gray is a hairy vining plant with sharply palmate leaves that have five fingerlike lobes. It looks very similar to its close relative, the coyote gourd Cucurbita palmata, but the leaf lobes of Cucurbita digitata are usually more slender. It produces curling yellow flowers that can grow up to 5 centimeters wide. Its fruit is a dark green, rounded or nearly rounded squash with mottled markings and distinct white stripes. The fruit is bitter, very distasteful, and generally not edible, though a small number of animals may hesitantly eat the fruit flesh to access the seeds inside. Each white seed is roughly one centimeter long; with 35% protein and 50% fat content, the seeds are a nutritious food.
