Aboboreira

The pumpkin plant, which produces the pumpkins that the Madeirans call black or from Guinea (Cucurbita moschata), and the pumpkin plant that produces the butternut squash (C. Pepo), exist and are cultivated on a large scale in Madeira. The first, which seems to originate from the West Indies, is the most common, easily distinguished by its leaves spotted with white; the second, which is mainly cultivated above 200 or 300 meters, originates from South Asia and has leaves without white spots. It is the butternut squash that produces the seeds used against tapeworms and roundworms. The pumpkin plants that produce the orange pumpkin, the warty pumpkin, and the crown pumpkin are simple varieties of C. Pepo. The black or Guinea pumpkin, very variable in shape, has a much better taste than the butternut squash or the pumpkin from Portugal (C. máxima) when derived from selected plants.