There’s always a table reserved for you at the Botany Bistro! Here you can munch on bite-sized botany as you savor the science of plants. In 2025, Season 2 of this free, virtual botanical banquet is focused on 24 different plant families, exploring their unique characteristics and ways they have adapted through time. New videos are uploaded on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month at noon. Want a link to each video once it’s up? Sign up here!

This session is all about Cucurbitaceae, also called the gourd family, which includes squash, pumpkin, zucchini, calabash, watermelon, cucumber, bitter melon and luffa. Cucurbitaceae ranks among the highest of plant families for number and percentage of species used as human food.

To see the full schedule, meet the instructor, access the Botany Bistro archive and sign up for email notifications, click on Learn More below.