Pumpkins galore
APumpkins take centrestage at the Singapore Flower Dome’s Autumn Harvest exhibition. N old Ford pickup truck caught my attention when I visited the Singapore Flower Dome at the Gardens by the Bay recently. It reminded me of one frequently seen in the
of the 1970s. This vehicle was among the decor at the Autumn Harvest exhibition featuring pumpkins.
According to Flower Dome’s in-house tour guide Fitri, while pumpkins were the star attraction at the exhibition, other plants associated with autumn were also featured, including gourds, chrysanthemums and apples.
During a 15-minute guided tour, I renewed my acquaintance with the pump- kin. All these while, I had thought that pumpkins were either green or yellow but the show was an eye-opener as Fitri explained the many types of pumpkins available in the world, some of which had been imported for the show.
She introduced me to the Cronus pumpkin, which is recognised by its long thick stalk, the regularly seen pumpkin I am familiar with. However, there rarely seen ones as well, as I later found out.
For example, looking less Fitri is an expert on pumpkins.
Turk’s Turban is named such because it looks like a turban; The wart-like protrusions on the Knucklehead is a actually excess sugar that has accumulated on the skin. appealing than the smoothskinned Cronus pumpkin was one which appeared to have wart-like protrusions all over.
“This is the Knucklehead,” introduced Fitri, “and it has been genetically modified to look scary as possible as this species is often sought after as decorative objects during Halloween, which happens to fall in autumn.
“Knuckleheads are carved into Jack-O-Lanterns or as heads of scarecrows. The warts are actually excess sugar that has concentrated on the skin. This species is also very sweet,” she said, before introducing me to a more freaky-looking member of the pumpkin family the size of a basketball. It’s simply known as the Big Warty Thing — covered with “warts” all over and reddish in colour.
Another pumpkin that caught my attention was one looking like a headgear, which is known as Turk’s Turban.
“Pumpkin are literally named by their appearance,” said Fitri as she walked towards a white pumpkin slightly larger than a basketball known as