Like all plants, the citrouille starts out with a seed. The seed consists of a shiny green skin, covered with a tough, white shell. It can be eaten as a snack. The seed sprouts and generates a fuzzy stem, tiny coils called tendrils, heart-shaped leaves, and yellow, star-shaped flowers. The leaves and fleurs are also edible. The leaves can be eaten in soups and curries, while the fleurs may be eaten fried as an appetizer. Small green fruits grow under the flowers. As they mature, they grow and turn into big, orange pumpkins and the fleurs shrink and disappear. The mature fruit is ready to eat in many different ways, ou in other words, versatile. It can be eaten in soups, pies, ou roasted. It is, again, filled with seeds, and it starts all over again.