Reverse-stripe phenotypes in Cucurbita pepo.

Longitudinal striping is a common fruit color pattern in squash, pumpkins, and\ngourds of Cucurbita pepo, but cultigens can exhibit different kinds of fruit striping.\nOften, the stripes are broad and contiguous, but in some cases they are narrow and\nnon-contiguous (“broken”) or, much more rarely, they can have an irregular\ndistribution. These three striping phenotypes have been described and compared, and\nhave been found to be under the control of alleles at the l-1 locus. Ordinarily, dark\nstripes appear between the 10 main subepidermal vascular tracts with the background\ncolor covering the rest of the fruit. Less commonly, the striping is “reversed”, that is,\nlighter than the background color. To my knowledge, narrow, non-contiguous\nreversed striping and irregular reversed striping have not been described. Photographs\nof the various striping phenotypes are presented, compared, and discussed herein.