DESCRIPTION

The zucchini, courgette or baby marrow (Cucurbita pepo) is a summer squash, a herbaceous vine whose fruit are harvested when their immature seeds and epicarp (rind) are still soft and edible. It is closely related, but not identical, to the marrow; its fruit may be called marrow when mature.

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).

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 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.

Source: Wikipedia