Chayote (pepinela)

Madeirans give this name to Sechium edule, a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae which in Portugal is called chuchu or caiota. The latter name was once much used in Madeira, but today it has been abandoned and even forgotten by the people.

Some people unfamiliar with botany call our chayote (pepinela) pimpinela, although there is no relationship whatever between the two plants. The pimpinela of Portugal is a member of the rose family (Sanguisorba minor) which we have seen cultivated in Madeira, but which never became common. There is also a genus of umbellifers called Pimpinella, which includes anise (herva doce) and other species.

The chayote comes from Central America and bears obovate or obovate-claviform fruits, green or white, each with a single seed. The plant is propagated from whole fruits, which are set in small holes in January and February, sometimes lying flat, sometimes with the shoot pointing down; in the latter case the shoot must be bent so that part of it stays above ground.

The chayote can in some cases live for more than 10 years, and it usually bears little fruit in its first year. The fruits appear in autumn and early winter; the green ones are the tastiest and the white ones the best suited for preserves.

The chayote already existed in Madeira at the beginning of the 19th century, when many people knew its fruits by the odd name of pepinos nelas, from which, it seems, the word pepinela derived.