55 days — Also known as 'Cocozella di Napoli', this Italian heirloom has not only become a garden staple, it was also a parent to enough newer named varieties that it is now a category of Cucurbita pepo
The plants are bush-type producing long cylindrical zucchini fruit that are dark green colored and striped in lighter green. Their flesh is greenish white and firm. Although we prefer to harvest the fruits when they are about eight to ten inches in length, Vilmorin-Andrieux
"All through Italy . . . the fruit is eaten quite young, when it is hardly the size of a cucumber, sometimes even before the flower has opened, when the ovary, which is scarcely as long or as thick as the finger, is gathered for use. The plants, thus deprived of their undeveloped fruits, continue to flower for several months most profusely . . ."
In searching the archive, it appears that W. Atlee Burpee
gets the credit for introducing 'Cocozelle' summer squash to North American gardeners in 1890.
Within merely two to three years, nearly every seed catalogue began carrying it. Each packet contains four grams, which is approximately 26 to 28 seeds.