Scientific Name: Cucurbita pepo

Common Names: Zucchini 'Black Beauty', Courgette 'Black Beauty'

Family: CUCURBITACEAE (Squashes, Melons & Gourds)

Etymology:

Cucurbita: Gourd; Latin
pepo: Large Ripe Fruit

Origin:

Cucurbita pepo is a species originally from the highlands of Mexico and other areas of northern Central America.  Zucchinis as a vegetable are thought to have been first cultivated in Italy during the 15th century.  This 'Black Beauty' cultivator may have been first bred in the USA sometime prior to 1957.

Description:

This is an early fruiting, prolific and vigorous variety of zucchini that grows in a bush habit and produces high quality, well-flavoured, dark-green skinned fruit with a tender white flesh.

Uses:

Zucchini have the best flavour when picked young, no larger than 15cm.  Zucchini can be eaten raw and is often sliced thinly and added to salads or cut into sticks and eaten with dip.  Young shoots and leaves are also edible but are most palatable when cooked.  The flowers are edible too, a good use of any extra male flowers is to stuff and fry them.

Germination:

Sow seeds about 2cm deep and spaced 60cm apart.  In cold regions sow between October and December.  In temperate regions sow between September and January.  In the subtropics sow between July and March.  In the tropics sow between March and October to avoid the high humidity of Summer. 

Cultivation:

Zucchini plants likes well-drained soil high with high organic matter content but avoid over-fertilising or the plants may put on extra leaf growth at the expense of fruit production.  Harvest in 7-9 weeks from sowing the seed.  Harvesting often will encourage new flowers to form.