This lovely squash turned up in my garden with no name tag anywhere in sight so if anyone knows it’s name I would greatly appreciate your response.
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No idea what it is but wondering if they started out looking like this?
I have a prolific squash volunteer in my compost pile that I’m pretty certain came from the seeds of a Costco zucchini, but it doesn’t look anything like it so wondering if in commercial production they pollinate the zucchini plants they won’t be saving seed from with some other squash variety that’s known to produce lots of male flowers and pollen? Haven’t tried it yet so not sure if it’s tasty (I’m sure it’s not ‘true’ so not expecting greatness) but it’s interesting having mystery produce in your garden 
No the shape is very different as you can see from the baby hanging on the vine. Almost a creamy colour with the green speckles and stripes at the top.
Ah yes, the squash! They are notorious for getting cross pollinated and producing something …A few years ago one of our squash plants produced squash that were huge, weighing in around 5 pounds or more each. We had several, so I gave some away. a little while later when we tried ours, well first of all the skin was so hard I had to use a hammer to force the knife through it to cut it open. Then it tasted horrible - it went right into the compost and the seeds went into the garbage! We still have those friends I gave those squash to, but they have never mentioned them!
So it could be a legitimate variety, or just some franken veggie!
Good luck with it, please do let us know how it tastes!
Gordon
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Thanks so much for the info. I’m really loving this forum as I am learning lots, getting to view lovely plants/gardens and having more conversations with gardeners than I ever did at our regular meetings.
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As @graflh mentioned they are notorious for cross-pollinating. One year I thought it would be fun to grow some decorative gourds; well that wasn’t the best idea when it came to the zucchinis, acorn and butternut squashes we had also growing. Learned that lesson the hard way!
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Yes, after hearing about cucurbitacin poisoning I was careful to taste my mystery squash before cooking with them. Luckily these ones were just fine 
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Not only do some of the squashes cross-pollinate if they are in the same species, but if you look up your variety in a seed catalogue, you will likely find it is an F1 hybrid. This means seeds will not come true next year. You will get one parent or the other. If you want to save your squash seeds it is best to hand pollinate and then bag the flower so no bees can get at it. You can take the bag off once the fruit starts to grow but mark the fruit with a ribbon so you know which is which.
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