The modern zucchini is considered a “bush squash”: it doesn’t produce the long, wandering stems of vining squash, like pumpkins, but rather a short stem rather like a rosette, almost entirely covered with leaves.

Modern zucchinis are bush squashes: they form a large clump rather than a creeping vine. Winter squash, such as pumpkins, spaghetti squash, turban squash and butternut squash, are close relatives, but are harvested in late summer or fall when their skin is tough and inedible and their seeds are large and mature. It’s not the only summer squash: others include pattypan, crookneck and straight neck squash. The zucchini is a summer squash, that is, one developed for eating in its immature stage, in summer, while its skin is still thin and edible and its seeds still tiny and indistinct. The plant and its fruit are called zucchini in Australia, Canada and the US, but the French name, courgette (“little squash”) is more common in the British Isles. And most modern varieties have spineless leaves. Some old-fashioned varieties are ribbed, but most zucchinis today are ribless. It can be green, striped or yellow and is usually long and narrow, but there are also round zucchinis. The name means “little pumpkin,” from “zucca” (Italian for pumpkin). Although squashes are originally from Mesoamerica, the variety known as zucchini was developed in Italy at the end of the 19 th century. Photo: A zucchini is a type of squash ( Cucurbita pepo). Note the silver-mottled foliage, a characteristic of some cultivars, but not all. Let’s therefore take a closer look at this popular vegetable and answer some of the questions. Not the same question, but different ones, so there is obviously more than one thing going wrong with them. I don’t know what’s going on this year, but for some time my inbox has been filled with questions about zucchinis (courgettes). Once zucchinis get started, they’re just about the fastest-producing vegetables in the home garden, from bloom to harvest in less than a week.

Growing blackjack zucchini