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The specifics of this particular species's origin and distribution methods are, as of yet, unproven. However, there are
theories. Ethnobotany in Hawaii lists the bottle gourd as being "(distributed) throughout (the) Pacific area, South America,
and tropical Asia and Africa... Probably brought along in early migration since gourds were used by peoples in islands south
and west of Hawaii, from where first Hawaiians came."
According
to a more recent website by Gerald McCormack, "a recent re-investigation by Whistler (1990) showed that there was no evidence
of the Bottle Gourd being anciently in Fiji, Samoa, or Tonga. ... The Bottle Gourd was anciently only on the high islands
of Eastern Polynesia, from Hawai'i in the north, to Easter Island in the southeast, to New Zealand in the southwest, and the
Cook Islands in the tropical east." He goes on to explain the origin- the wild predecessors of the domestic bottle gourd "have
never been found." Central America (Mexico, Peru, and Florida) boasts the oldest creadible evidence of the domesticated bottle
gourd species- 6,000BC and 5,300BC, respectively. As evidence in Africa and Asia dates to more recent times it "support(s)
the idea that the Bottle Gourd was domesticated earlier in the New World than in Africa and Asia." In respect to the geographical
origin of the species "it is... most probable that the Bottle Gourd ancestor was also an African plant" which floated across
the Atlantic Ocean and became a native plant in the Americas, where it "was found, domesticated and spread throughout much
of the Americas by people." The arrival of the bottle gourd to the eastern Polynesian islands is still subject to more speculation
than the rest of the distribution is, with McCormack hypothesizing that "one or more canoes reached South America, probably
Peru, and returned with the Bottle Gourd and Sweet Potato - about a thousand years ago."
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