ayotli (FCbk11fXX)
This iconographic example, featuring a black and white sketch of a squash plant (ayotli, or ayohtli, with the glottal stop), is included in this digital collection for the purpose of making comparisons with related hieroglyphs. The term selected for this example comes from the text near the image in the Digital Florentine Codex. There is no gloss, per se. This example shows a part of a larger squash plant (which can be seen in the contextualizing image). This portion captures the full-sized squash, a squash blossom, leaves with five points, visible roots, and the curling tip of the vine. Some shading and lines of texture give this iconographic example some three-dimensionality. Together with the grounding, these features show European artistic influence.
Stephanie Wood
Not only is squash (ayotli) eaten in Mesoamerica, but the blossoms (ayoxochtli) are also a popular food item. While this iconographic example does not show the seeds (ayoxinachtli), these are also eaten. The term for turtle (ayotl) is very close to the term for squash (ayotli), so some hieroglyphs for these terms can be a challenge to discern, such as what may be ayotl (Codex Mendoza, f. 46 recto). Yaotl is another near homonym where the hieroglyphs can merge or fail to be distinguishable. Finally, there is also a tzilacayotli (a soft squash), which looks much like the ayotli. Both have stripes.
Stephanie Wood
Aiotli
ayotli
Stephanie Wood
1577
Jeff Haskett-Wood
calabazas, plantas, comida, flor, flores, semilla, semillas
ayo(tli), a squash, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/ayotli
la calabaza
Stephanie Wood
Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter and Alicia Maria Houtrouw, "Book 11: Earthly Things", fol. XXX, Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/XXX/images/0 Accessed 16 November 2025.
Images of the digitized Florentine Codex are made available under the following Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International). For print-publication quality photos, please contact the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana ([email protected]). The Library of Congress has also published this manuscript, using the images of the World Digital Library copy. “The Library of Congress is unaware of any copyright or other restrictions in the World Digital Library Collection. Absent any such restrictions, these materials are free to use and reuse.”
