Beelert

Review

Hi Tobias

I think all in all you did a good job. Your entry is easy readable for a normal Wikipedia user and there is lots of information about the agronomic parameters. Probably a reader of this content would be able to cultivate the Cucurbita foetidissima or at least try to cultivate it.

To my view a few things are improvable, mainly the structure of your content. I recommend you to split your main-chapters into sub-chapters and other main-chapters as shown below:

Morphology

Gallery

The clearness of the content would be much better for me with a structure related to this one. I would also delete the first part of the chapter “The feral perennial Buffalo gourd has evolved in the semiarid regions and is well adapted to desert environments. It has abundant yields of oil, protein and carbohydrates. The carbohydrates who are formed in the tap root have led to the idea to grow the plant for biofuel.” because it’s a repeat of the content you wrote in “Uses”. This ingredients of the plant you describe in your chapter "Uses" I would move to the new chapter "Ingredients". The second part of the first chapter “The fruit is consumed by humans and animals. When the fruit is mature a stage marked by increasing desiccation of vine, leaves, fruitstem, and fruit itself it begins its final gourd stage.” could be moved to the new chapter “Uses”.

Your article already includes a lot of information. Even then I think it’s very important to know for reproduction of Cucurbita foetidissima, that the plant is gynodioecious (as you can find in http://www.amjbot.org/content/87/4/527.full)

I saw that the author of the already existing entry used the Latin name of the plant (Cucurbita foetidissima) while you use the name “Buffalo gourd” for the plant. To prevent misunderstandings I would use the same name.

In the sentences “This perennial is well adapted to marginal agricultural lands like sandy loam soils which have to be well drained.” And “One hectare of can produce 2,5 tons of seed.“ you prpbably forgot the plants name after “perennial” respectively “hectare of”.

I hope my suggestions can help you to improve your entry.

Töni

Dear Tobi,

I like your article. You completed the article in a clear and interesting way. I like the new structure of the text with different paragraphs. It is much easier to follow the article now. You filled especially the lack of morphological and nutritional information, so that we have now a good overview over the buffalo gourd. You also added many new references, which let me think, that you did a meticulous research work. All of them are correct in the reference list, as well as the citations in your text. It is a bit sad, that you couldn't write more about agricultural aspects after consulting all this literature. In general I think that you could have written more about agricultural aspects. You see my coments here. I copied the improvable text parts here into the talk with my suggestions in grease.

Introduction

The fruit is consumed by humans and animals. When the fruit is mature a stage marked by increasing desiccation of vine, leaves, fruitstem, and fruit itself it begins its final gourd stage.

I would put the last sentence in the morphology part.

Morphology and cultivation

Germination temperature range is between 15 °C and 37 °C with an optimum at 25 °C.[7]

A fleshy tap root gets formed by the plant which is used as a storage and overwintering structure.[7] The central tap root can weigh up to 72 kg.

This paragraph could be divided into two different paragraphs. I would start with a morphological description and explain environmental and climate requirements (temperature, germination depth etc.)as well as the cultivation in a second part.

Interesting information you could ad to your article:

- In which areas is the plant grown today? Corresponds the area with the natural distribution area (Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico)?

- Flowering time

- Color of flowers

- Sowing time

- How are the seeds sown?

- Harvesting time

- Which part of the plant is harvested; only seeds or also the root? How?

Uses

Oil: The extractable oil content in whole seeds reaches from 24,3 %[1] to 50 %.[8] Linoleic acid, an essential polyunsaturated fatty acid, comprises 38 % to 65 % of the oil.[1]

You could separate this part into two separate parts: one with nutrient values (starch, oil and protein content) and another with different uses. Nutrient values could be presented in a table which allows a good overview.

Pests

I don’t understand the last sentence. Are these molds caused by insects? To complete this part I suggestion:

-Informations about Insects: which species?

- Information about diseases

- Information about weeds

Hoferv (talk) 21:28, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

Cucurbita foetidissima

Hi Beelert, and welcome to Wikipedia! I noticed your proposed changes to the article Cucurbita foetidissima, and they look off-hand to be well researched and clearly written, from a non-botanist's (such as me) point of view. Provided you have used only words from your own head, and not copied the content word-for-word from the texts you cite, you should just put them on the article page, as written, as soon as possible. Really, though, it is not the best way to display an article's proposed changes on the talk page, especially in that you've removed the banners (and had there been other editors' correspondences there they, too, would have been removed, and that is likely to tick people off). Next time, just use your sandbox to test your article, and you can invite other active plant editors to view them at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Plants. I believe you will get some feedback. I advise you strongly to at least look over the useful information on the project page.

So, you have already been bold, now just be even bolder, and put your edits on the article page! Seriously, before someone deletes them! because, as I've said, it is not the usual way that it's done around here.

Oh, and make sure to restore the {{WikiProject Plants}} banner on the talk page.

Wikipedia very much could use a few more editors interested in and knowledgeable about plants. Good work! Hamamelis (talk) 07:30, 4 December 2012 (UTC)