Mo_girl, none of those you listed will cross with each other. Some ornamental gourds (the small colorful warted ones) are C. pepo, and will cross with other C.pepo... which is the reason some say "gourds" cross with squash.

Thanks :) Glad to hear it.

I recently received a generous gift of presumed Curcurbita mixta and/or Curcurbita moschata squashes that originated at Canino's Farmers' Market in Houston. One lot of seeds sent to me came from 6 different fruits of land race Mexican squashes. The seeds have not yet been grown out by the person who sent me the seeds.

There is so much variation in the size and shape of the seeds from two of these squash that I am wondering if it is possible for one female blossom in an open field to be fertilized by the pollen of more than one other plant, and thus to contain seeds within one fruit with several genetic mixes.

I have often seen as many as 10 bees at a time in squash blossoms shortly after sunrise here in Arkansas, and all the jousting for position to sip nectar means nobody crawls across the whole exposed pistle.

Many years ago I read an opinion that house cat litters can contain the offspring of multiple fathers. What about open-pollinated squash?

This is a SERIOUS question...

I'm currently weighing the merits of planting a newly turned garden spot to a maximum possible number of these squashes instead of side-by-side trials of 4 varieties of Seminole squash originally intended for the site. Also considering how to buy the squash 20 more days of growing time by planting in half-gallon tear-away cartons to be transplanted without root disturbance when we are warm enough to set out tomatoes.

greentongue (Arkansas Ozarks)