When A Pumpkin A Not A Pumpkin

Last night I was finally getting around to cutting and roasting some of the pumpkins leftover from Halloween in order to save the seeds. (Yes, I know that was in October. And Yes, I know it's March. I just can't kill them before their time). I was trying to determine what varieties I had, when I came across a disturbing fact. The pumpkin in canned pumpkin doesn't look anything like a pumpkin! It looks more like pumpkin's deformed cousin, the butternut squash and that's because they are related. The pumpkin in canned pumpkin is the Dickinson (C. moschata) variety. It's actually a cross between pumpkin and butternut squash. And rather than getting the beautiful traits of it's mother, the round body, glowing orange skin, it got all the traits of it's father, except for taste. Take a look below. Isn't that a spitting image of a butternut squash. Sure does taste like pumpkin though.