Plant Name

Scientific Name: Cucurbita foetidissima

Synonym: Pepo foetidissima

Common Names: Missouri Gourd, Buffalo Gourd, Stinking Gourd, Stink Gourd, Stinky Gourd, Calabazilla, Wild Gourd, Wild Pumpkin

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial

Growth Habit: Vine, Herb/Forb

Arizona Native Status: Native

Habitat: Desert, Upland. It grows in grassy areas and in pastures.

Flower Color: Orange-yellow

Flowering Season: Summer

Height: Trailing to 20 feet (6 m) long

Description: The fuzzy, urn-shaped flowers have 5 ruffled lobes and are 4 inches (10 cm) long. The female flowers are followed by light and dark green-striped gourds that dry to a solid tan color. The leaves are large, silvery gray-green in color, and triangular to narrowly heart-shaped. The plants have a huge underground taproot.

Special Characteristics

Edible – The seeds are edible like pumpkin seeds. The small, young fruits are supposedly also edible if cooked, but they are bitter. The taproots have been eaten in the past, but they are poisonous.

Foul-smelling – The crushed leaves have a strong, foul smell like pungent human body odor mixed with sulfurous sewage. Some plants smell worse than others. Beware of treading on the foliage because it will make your shoes stink.

Poisonous – The mature fruits and the taproots are poisonous. The horrible smelling foliage may be poisonous as well.

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Dilleniidae
Order: Violales
Family: Cucurbitaceae – Cucumber family
Genus: Cucurbita L. – gourd
Species: Cucurbita foetidissima Kunth – Missouri gourd

More About This Plant

Arizona County Distribution Map
Stink Gourd (Cucurbita foetidissima), A Very Stinky Plant – The Firefly Forest