I was wondering how pumpkins evolved to look so distinct from other plants, so I looked it up. Pumpkins are formally in the species Cucurbita Pepo (literally “gourd pumpkin”), which is the same species as winter squash and zucchini. The species can look so different because it is one of the oldest, if not the oldest domesticated species thanks to prehistoric Native Americans. When you think of a pumpkin, you’re picturing the Connecticut Field variety, which fittingly was grown in fields in Connecticut by Native Americans. Nowadays, 95% of the US pumpkin crop intended for processing is grown in Illinois, so if you’re eating pumpkin pie, the pumpkins probably came from Illinois. If you’re curious about jack-o-lanterns, they started in Ireland to commemorate “Stingy Jack,” a mythical figure so stingy that he duped Satan twice but ended up having to roam around between Heaven and Hell with a candle because Satan wouldn’t let him into Hell (Irish people must have been really bored). The Irish didn’t use pumpkins though since they were a New World crop; rutabaga was used instead. If you’re wondering where pumpkin spice lattes come from, the answer is Starbucks, of course. They weren’t invented until 2003 and contained absolutely no pumpkin until 2015. Starbucks has sold at least 200 million pumpkin spice lattes since then. As you can see, pumpkins are a pretty versatile plant and surprisingly important to human history.