Pumpkin in the context of Squash seed

Orange is the colour between yellow and red on the spectrum of visible light. The human eyes perceive orange when observing light with a dominant wavelength between roughly 585 and 620 nanometres. In traditional colour theory, it is a secondary colour of pigments, produced by mixing yellow and red. In the RGB colour model, it is a tertiary colour. It is named after the fruit of the same name.

The orange colour of many fruits and vegetables, such as carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and oranges, comes from carotenes, a type of photosynthetic pigment. These pigments convert the light energy that the plants absorb from the Sun into chemical energy for the plants' growth. Similarly, the hues of autumn leaves are from the same pigment after chlorophyll is removed.

Carotenoids (/kəˈrɒtɪnɔɪd/) are yellow, orange, and red organic pigments that are produced by plants and algae, as well as several bacteria, archaea, and fungi. Carotenoids give the characteristic color to pumpkins, carrots, parsnips, corn, tomatoes, canaries, flamingos, salmon, lobster, shrimp, and daffodils. Over 1,100 identified carotenoids can be further categorized into two classes – xanthophylls (which contain oxygen) and carotenes (which are purely hydrocarbons and contain no oxygen).

All are derivatives of tetraterpenes, meaning that they are produced from 8 isoprene units and contain 40 carbon atoms. In general, carotenoids absorb wavelengths ranging from 400 to 550 nanometers (violet to green light). This causes the compounds to be deeply colored yellow, orange, or red. Carotenoids are the dominant pigment in autumn leaf coloration of about 15-30% of tree species, but many plant colors, especially reds and purples, are due to polyphenols.

Cucurbita (Latin for 'gourd') is a genus of herbaceous fruits in the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae (also known as cucurbits or cucurbi), native to the Andes and Mesoamerica. Five edible species are grown and consumed for their flesh and seeds. They are variously known as squash, pumpkin, or gourd, depending on species, variety, and local parlance. Other kinds of gourd, also called bottle-gourds, are native to Africa and belong to the genus Lagenaria, which is in the same family and subfamily as Cucurbita, but in a different tribe; their young fruits are eaten much like those of the Cucurbita species.

There is debate about the taxonomy of the genus and the number of accepted species varies from 13 to 30. The five domesticated species are Cucurbita argyrosperma, C. ficifolia, C. maxima, C. moschata, and C. pepo, all of which can be treated as winter squash because the full-grown fruits can be stored for months. However, C. pepo includes some cultivars that are better used only as summer squash.

Agriculture on the precontact Great Plains describes the agriculture of the Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains of the United States and southern Canada in the Pre-Columbian era and before extensive contact with European explorers, which in most areas occurred by 1750. The most important crop was maize, usually planted along with beans and squash, including pumpkins. Minor crops such as sunflowers, goosefoot, tobacco, gourds, and plums, little barley (Hordeum pusillum) and marsh elder (Iva annua) were also grown. Maize agriculture began on the Great Plains about 900 AD.

Evidence of agriculture is found in all Central Plains complexes. Tribes periodically switched from emphasis on farming to hunting throughout their history during the Plains Village period (950-1850 AD), probably based on climatic fluctuations and the periodic abundance of bison. The northernmost area of intensive maize cultivation on the Great Plains was along the Missouri River in North Dakota, although there is evidence of maize cultivation in neighboring Manitoba. The southernmost area of agriculture was in northern Texas among the Caddoan peoples The farming Natives traded their surplus production to non-agricultural nomads.

Sidi Bennour Province (Berber : ⵜⴰⵙⴳⴰ ⵏ ⵙⵉⴷⵉ ⴰⴱⵉ ⵉⵏⵏⵓⵔ Arabic: إقليم سيدي بنور) is one of the Moroccan provinces on the western coast of the country. It was named after Abu Yenour Abd Allah Iben ouchris Al-Doukkali, a Sufi jurist who was a contemporary of the Almoravid state. The province was created in 2009 by separating it from neighboring provinces and belongs to the Casablanca-Settat region north of Marrakesh. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, El Jadida Province to the northwest, Safi Province to the southwest, Rehamna and Youssoufia Province to the southeast, and finally Settat Province and the Oum Er-Rbia River to the northeast. Its capital is Sidi Bennour, and the largest city in the province is Oualidia. Sidi Bennour is often referred to as Sidi Bennour Province to distinguish it from the provincial capital, the city of Sidi Bennour.

Sidi Bennour Province is an administrative division in Morocco, with an area of 116.1 square miles (300,733 km), and is the thirty-fifth most populous province, with a population of more than 452,538 people. The majority of the population of Sidi Bennour Province lives in the city of Sidi Bennour. It is a center for sugar beet production in the region. Sidi Bennour Province is known for its fertile soil, diverse vegetation, and abundant water. All of these factors have helped the region flourish with its diverse agricultural products such as squash and corn, as well as livestock. It is also known for its economic prosperity, as it has become a destination for all traders from industrial cities such as Fez and Marrakech. It is also distinguished by the presence of Oualidia Beach on the Atlantic coast of the Atlantic Ocean in Morocco, which is considered one of the smallest Moroccan beaches on its Atlantic coast. The Sidi Bennour region is known for its diverse weekly markets throughout the week, including Tnine Chtouka, Tlat Sidi Bennour, Khmis Ksiba, Larbaâ Laaounate, Khmis Zemamra, jamaa Bni Hilal, and Sebt Saiss.

The Cucurbitaceae (/kjuːˌkɜːrbɪˈteɪsiːˌiː/ kew-KUR-bih-TAY-see-ee), also called cucurbits or the gourd family, are a plant family consisting of about 965 species in 101 genera. Some commonly cultivated cucurbits include:

• Cucurbita – squash, pumpkin, zucchini (courgette), some gourds.
• Lagenaria – calabash (bottle gourd) and other, ornamental gourds.
• Citrullus – watermelon (C. lanatus, C. colocynthis), plus several other species.
• Cucumis – cucumber (C. sativus); various melons and vines.
• Momordica – bitter melon.
• Luffa – commonly called 'luffa' or ‘luffa squash'; sometimes spelled loofah. Young fruits may be cooked; when fully ripened, they become fibrous and unpalatable, thus becoming the source of the loofah scrubbing sponge.
• Cyclanthera – Caigua.
• Gerrardanthus — the species G. macrorhizus has gained some popularity as an ornamental caudiciform plant.
• Xerosicyos — the silver dollar vine (Xerosicyos danguyi) is popular amongst horticulturists and plant collectors.

The plants in this family are grown around the tropics and in temperate areas of the world, where those with edible fruits were among the earliest cultivated plants in both the Old and New Worlds. The family Cucurbitaceae ranks among the highest of plant families for number and percentage of species used as human food. The name Cucurbitaceae comes to international scientific vocabulary from Neo-Latin, from Cucurbita, the type genus, + -aceae, a standardized suffix for plant family names in modern taxonomy. The genus name comes from the Classical Latin word cucurbita, meaning "gourd".

Cucurbita moschata is a species originating in the tropical Americas which is cultivated for edible flesh, flowers, greens, and seeds. It includes cultivars known in English as squash or pumpkin. Cultivars of C. moschata are generally more tolerant of hot, humid weather than squash of other domesticated species. C. moschata also exhibit a greater resistance to certain disease and insects, notably including to the squash vine borer. Commercially-made pumpkin pie mix is most often made from varieties of C. moschata.

Cucurbita pepo is a cultivated plant of the genus Cucurbita. It yields varieties of winter squash and pumpkin, but the most widespread varieties belong to the subspecies Cucurbita pepo subsp. pepo, called summer squash.

It has been domesticated in the Americas for thousands of years, from where it was spread by early colonisers to Europe and later across the rest of the Old World in the context of the Columbian Exchange. Some authors maintain that C. pepo is derived from C. texana, while others suggest that C. texana is merely feral C. pepo. They have a wide variety of uses, especially as a food source. C. pepo seems more closely related to C. fraterna, though disagreements exist about the exact nature of that connection, too.

Candied fruit, also known as glacé fruit, is whole fruit, smaller pieces of fruit, or pieces of peel, placed in heated sugar syrup, which absorbs the moisture from within the fruit and eventually preserves it. Depending on the size and type of fruit, this process can take from several days to several months. This process of preservation, which has been used since the 14th century, allows the fruit to remain edible for up to a year.

Fruits which are commonly candied include cherries, pineapple, greengages, pears, peaches and melon, as well as ginger root. The principal candied peels are orange and citron; these, together with candied lemon peel, are the usual ingredients of mixed chopped peel. Vegetables such as pumpkin, turnip, carrot, and Angelica archangelica stems can also be candied.

Phytochemicals are naturally occurring chemicals present in or extracted from plants. Some phytochemicals are nutrients for the plant, while others are metabolites produced to enhance plant survivability and reproduction.

The fields of extracting phytochemicals for manufactured products or applying scientific methods to study phytochemical properties are called phytochemistry. An individual who uses phytochemicals in food chemistry manufacturing or research is a phytochemist.