Reverse-stripe phenotypes in Cucurbita pepo

Longitudinal striping is a common fruit color pattern in squash, pumpkins, and gourds of Cucurbita pepo, but cultigens can exhibit different kinds Of Fruit Striping. Often, the stripes are broad and contiguous, but in some cases they are narrow and non-contiguous ("broken") or, much more rarely, they call have all irregular distribution. These three striping phenotypes have been described and compared, and have been found to be under the control of alleles at the l-l locus. Ordinarily, dark stripes appear between the 10 main subepidermal vascular tracts with the background color covering the rest of the fruit. Less commonly, the striping is "reversed", that is, lighter than the background color. To my knowledge, narrow, non-contiguous reversed striping and irregular reversed striping have not been described. Photographs of the various striping phenotypes are presented, compared, and discussed herein.