Cucurbita argyrosperma, commonly known as cushaw, kershaw, or silver-seed gourd, is a species of squash most grown most frequently in North and Central America, and believed to originate from southern Mexico.

[7] In precolonial America, archaeological remains have been found as far northward as the Eastern Agricultural Complex.

[8] The extant native range of the wild sororia type is from northern Mexico through Central America to Nicaragua, at elevations from sea level to 1,900m.

Ecological shifts and the extinction of megafauna likely explain substantial reduction in wild Cucurbita populations during the Holocene epoch.

[16] Today the wild sororia type can be found growing freely from Nicaragua to Guatemala and the Mexican coasts of Veracruz, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacán, Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit, Sinaloa, and Sonora.

[3] In 1948, the proposed type for another species Cucurbita kellyana was published, but this taxa is now considered a synonym for sororia.

[5] It was originally formally described by Liberty Hyde Bailey in 1943, in Gentes Herbarum[5] and is now believed to be a mixture of wild and domesticated genetics.

[11] The earliest known possible archaeological records of C. argyrosperma are 8,700-year-old phytoliths in the Central Balsas River valley in Guerrero, but these remains are considered ambiguous.

[18][6] The earliest unambiguous specimen is a C. argyrosperma peduncle that has been dated to approximately 5,100 years ago, from the Ocampo caves.

C. argyrosperma is thought to follow a domestication pattern similar to other Cucurbita, beginning with reduction of bitterness and an increase in seed size.

The geographic center of cultivation for variety callicarpa has been central and northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States.

stenospermа and callicarpa suggest selection has occurred for the fruit's flesh as well as for edible seeds in those varieties.

There farmers often grow landrace varieties which have diverse attributes in many regards but prioritize long-necked fruits.

[11] One issue facing assessments of the origins and history of domesticated Cucurbita argyrosperma relates to the fact that the species was not fully described at the time of many archaeological studies guided the 20th century understanding of the domestication and dispersal of this species.

argyrosperma var callicarpa may have reached what is now Virginia and New England hundreds of years before European colonization.

[23] In areas where C. argrosperma is traditionally cultivated, it is common to use term to describe fruit based on its qualities rather than using a cultivar name.

In Colima and Jalisco the seeds from wild gourds are ground as part of a beverage called agua fresca, which is said to have a purifying effect.

[11][30] In Jalisco the pulp of the fruit is used as a remedy against mange and the seeds are used for the treatment of liver and kidney diseases.

[30] People in the Yucatán have traditionally used the flesh of Cucurbita argyrosperma to tend burns, sores, and eczema, while the seeds have been used with the aim of promoting lactation in nursing women, and provide pain relief.

[20] In Chiapas, where names for wild C. argyrosperma gourds include calabaza de caballo (horse pumpkin), calabaza de burro (donkey pumpkin), and coloquinto, horses and donkeys eat the wild fruits.

argyrosperma, which includes all domesticated cushaw taxa, is adapted to warm climates and is most commonly cultivated at low elevations.