Story behind the art of Charlotte Cochran

Botanical Art Worldwide 2025-A More Abundant Future:

Diversity in Garden, Farm, and Field

American Society of Botanical Artists at the Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, MO

Dried Okra

Abelmoschus esculentus

My selection of dried okra as a painting subject came about because of happenstance. I frequent farmers markets near my home in the Fan district of Richmond, Virginia. One Saturday in the fall while looking for pumpkins to create an autumn display, I spotted something. Amid a bundle of dried corn stalks, was a six-foot high stalk of okra, complete with dried pods with seeds rattling inside! I marveled at the complexity of the specimen, its textures, the warm sepia color, and decided this would make a lovely painting.

Thus began my education about the history of okra, Abelmoschus esculentus. Okra probably originated in Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea) and has been cultivated as a food crop by Egyptians for hundreds of years. In the US, okra is considered the quintessential southern food, but how it arrived here is unclear. Most likely, it was by the transatlantic slave trade. According to the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, the word okra is thought to be a corruption of “nkru-ma,” a name used by the tribes of modern day Ghana. Okra is also known as ladies’ fingers. Though it produces fruits, these fruit pods are usually cooked as a vegetable.

Dried specimens attract me because the structural details are revealed by subtle color contrasts not readily visible in living tissue. Notice in this painting how the base starts brown, and as you climb the stalk, it still retains a hint of green at the top.

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