Three Sisters (agriculture)
The Three Sisters are the three main agricultural crops of various indigenous peoples of Central and North America: squash, maize ("corn"), and climbing beans. In a technique known as companion planting, the maize and beans are often planted together in mounds formed by hilling soil around the base of the plants each year; squash is typically planted between the mounds. The cornstalk serves as a trellis for climbing beans, the beans fix nitrogen in their root nodules and stabilize the maize in high winds, and the wide leaves of the squash plant shade the ground, keeping the soil moist and helping prevent the establishment of weeds.
Maize, climbing beans, and winter squash planted together
The Three Sisters planting method is featured on the reverse of the 2009 US Sacagawea dollar.
Three Sisters mound planting in Arizona, 2022
Historic marker in Madison County, New York
Cucurbita is a genus of herbaceous fruits in the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae, 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. These other gourds are used as utensils or vessels, and their young fruits are eaten much like those of the Cucurbita species.
Image: Squashes at Kew Gardens Incr Edibles 2013
Image: Cultivated Cucurbita of Canada
C. pepo pumpkins – the two bright orange ones in center right, and squashes C. maxima, all others
The leaves of Cucurbita moschata often have white spots near the veins.