odd squash please help!

my anut grows a garden every year for the last 35 years. well this year an odd plant started growing about 5 feet from her garden. last week she picked what we think is a squash. i have looked all over the internet for what type it is but can not find it. it is bright yellow, about the size of 2 softballs together, smells like a cucumber, the center is full like a summer squash but fluffy, the taste when you are chewing is like a very faint watermelon but the after taste is cucumber, the outside feels like a summer squash but when you squeeze it, it is like an apple. can anyone help?

Can you post a picture? that would help alot.

It's likely a cross from last year (or before). I have something growing in my tomato patch that is an Unidentified Squashlike Object. It's got leaves like a winter squash, and is beginning to vine, and the tiny fruit looks kind of like an acorn, but I've never planted acorn squash. I did have several varieties of winter squash, and pumpkins, and I expect this is the product of an unsactioned union.....
I'm hoping that FarmerDill will come along and explain better, and I have a question...Is this cross okay to eat? I know it may not be tasty, but could it be toxic? Hate to waste anything:)

would not be toxic. maybe not tasty. Try them young and see if they are better that way and let some mature to see if they make good winter squash. Most winter squashed can be eaten young too like summer squash (and I mean really young).

It wont be toxic, all unintentional crosses are edible but general not that great tasting and have a tendancy to develope an very hard, almost gourd like, shell. but hey if you come up with something really good you may get to name a new variety!

*G*. I'll give it a shot, then. Thanks! If I don't like it, maybe the cows will....:). I'd heard some gourds were toxic, so thought I'd ask.

This message was edited Jul 20, 2008 11:06 AM

gourds are in a totally diffrent family then the 5 squash familys and wont cross with any members of the squash family. you may have something from the cuke family too . there are cuke melons too

Okay, while I've got you guys, when I lived in Florida there were "things" that grew wild in the horse pasture. They looked just like watemelons (the size of an ice box melon) but we were told in no uncertain terms to leave them alone, they were poisonous. I never looked farther, could they have been a gourd?
TIA,

could have been a gourd , there are some hardshell gourds that produce fruitys that big

I doubt it Cat. Citrons grow wild in parts of Georgia and Florida. They are essentailly a watermelon that has hard white flesh. Not toxic, but pretty much useless. The old folks hated them because they crossed with watermelons and as they saved thier seeds ended up with inedible watermelons. As regards gourds, virtually every species is eaten in some parts of the world. Bottle gourds, bitter gourds, wax gourds, luffas are popular in Asia. In fact the luffa type was once fairly popular in the south where it was known as vine or climbing okra.

As for bpr. Could be a squash cross, could be a melon cross. The leaves are different so that can be used to identify them. The description of the taste does sound like the melon we call an Armenian cucumber. Whether vining or bush is also important as summer squash are usually bush. Squash have yellow blossoms. Many gourds have white blossoms.

I have eaten young luffa fruits in stir fry and it is really good.