Golden zucchini grown in the Netherlands for sale in a supermarket in Montpellier, France, in April 2013
Ordinary zucchini fruit are any shade of green, though the golden zucchini is a deep yellow or orange.[6] At maturity, they can grow to nearly 1 metre (3 feet) in length, but they are normally harvested at about 15–25 cm (6–10 in).[7]
In botany, the zucchini's fruit is a pepo, a berry (the swollen ovary of the zucchini flower) with a hardened epicarp. In cookery, it is a vegetable, usually cooked and eaten as a savory dish or accompaniment.
Zucchini occasionally contain toxic cucurbitacins, making them extremely bitter, and causing severe gastero-enteric upsets. Causes include stressed growing conditions, and cross pollination with ornamental squashes.
Zucchini descends from squashes first domesticated in Mesoamerica over 7,000 years ago,[8] but the zucchini itself was bred in Milan in the late 19th century.[9]
