A pumpkin is a large, round orange fruit that grows on a vine close to the ground. Pumpkins have thick, ribbed skin and hollow centers filled with seeds and stringy pulp. Though we often treat them like vegetables, botanically they're fruits because they contain seeds and grow from the flowering part of the plant.

Pumpkins originated in North America and have been cultivated for thousands of years. Native Americans grew pumpkins as an important food source, roasting the flesh and drying strips of it for winter. Today, farmers grow pumpkins in fields called pumpkin patches, where the vines sprawl across acres of land and the pumpkins ripen throughout the summer and fall.

People carve pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns for Halloween, cutting faces or designs into them and placing candles inside to make them glow. But pumpkins are also delicious: the flesh can be roasted, turned into soup, or baked into pies and breads. The seeds, when roasted with salt, make a crunchy snack.

In stories and sayings, pumpkin often appears in affectionate nicknames or fairy tales. In Cinderella, a fairy godmother transforms a pumpkin into a magical coach. Some parents call their children pumpkin as a term of endearment.