Pumpkin

I drew the pumpkin for the whole plant, not only the famous fruit. The fruit is here, cut open to show the cavity, the seed mass and the thick orange wall. Beside it are the wide trumpet flower that comes before any fruit and lengths of stem with curling tendrils. This pumpkin print is a study of how the fruit is made, from flower to seed. A photograph of a pumpkin shows a round orange shape. The drawing shows the machinery behind it.

In shortThe pumpkin, Cucurbita pepo, is a New World squash that people have grown for thousands of years. It has separate male and female flowers, and its fruit stores through winter. The plate shows the fruit cut open, a flower and the climbing stem.

Key Facts

Why does a pumpkin plant have two kinds of flower?

A pumpkin plant has two kinds of flower because only one kind can make fruit. The male flowers carry pollen. The female flowers carry a swollen base, the ovary, which becomes the pumpkin once it is pollinated. Both are borne on the same vine.

The first flowers to appear are male, and they often drop off, which is normal. Female flowers open later. Each opens in the morning, is visited by bees within hours and closes by afternoon, so the window is short. The flower is as large as a wine glass and a vivid yellow-orange. When a plant seems healthy but sets no fruit, poor pollination is a common cause, especially in cold, rainy or cloudy weather when bees fly less. The two flowers look different enough that the cause becomes clear once you know which is which.

Is every pumpkin a Cucurbita pepo?

No. Pumpkin is a common name, not a botanical one. It covers fruits from three or more species of Cucurbita. Most jack-o’-lantern pumpkins and some pie pumpkins are Cucurbita pepo. So are acorn, delicata and spaghetti squash, and the courgette.

The very large pumpkins grown for weight are usually Cucurbita maxima, the species that also gives us kabocha and Hubbard squash. Butternut belongs to Cucurbita moschata. Each species has its own range of fruit shapes, rind textures and colours. The three species can be hard to separate by colour alone, which is why the studio names the species and not only the common word. Many warty, orange carving pumpkins are Cucurbita pepo, and the plate is named for that species.

Where does the pumpkin come from?

The pumpkin comes from Mexico. One genetic study of Cucurbita pepo puts its domestication there about 10,000 years ago, possibly near Oaxaca. A wild relative from the north-east of Mexico is the likely ancestor, though researchers have not settled the question. It is one of the oldest crops of the Americas.

In traditional farming it was grown with maize and beans as part of a system often called the Three Sisters. Maize gave the beans something to climb. The beans fed the soil with nitrogen. The broad squash leaves shaded the ground and kept it moist. The plant reached Europe in the sixteenth century and spread quickly, because it grew heavily and stored well. It then became part of harvest imagery across the northern hemisphere.

Why do pumpkins keep so long after harvest?

Pumpkins keep for months because the rind hardens as the fruit matures. A pumpkin cut with a few centimetres of stem attached and left to cure in dry, sunny weather toughens its skin further. Stored cool and dry, with good air around it, it can last through winter. Rot starts where the skin is bruised or the stem has been torn off.

That keeping quality made the pumpkin vital to households before refrigeration. Everything in it is useful. The flesh is eaten cooked, the seeds are roasted and eaten, and the flowers are cooked in Italian and Mexican kitchens. The orange colour of the flesh comes from carotenoid pigments, the same family that colours carrots. A pumpkin is both a practical store of food and a decorative object, and few vegetables are as comfortable in both roles.

Why is the pumpkin a symbol of autumn?

The pumpkin is a symbol of autumn because it ripens at the end of the growing season and then lasts into winter. In the northern hemisphere that makes it the natural emblem of harvest. It is carved at Halloween and cooked at harvest suppers.

The carved lantern has older roots. Irish and Scottish custom carved turnips and similar vegetables, and settlers in North America switched to the larger, easier pumpkin when they found it abundant. Today patches, markets and doorsteps fill with them in October. The plate keeps to the plant, not the festival: the fruit, the flower and the vine that carried them. The pumpkin ripens as the days shorten, which is why it has come to stand for the turn of the year.

Drawing the pumpkin

I drew the fruit cut in half to show the internal architecture: the cavity, the seed mass and the thick orange wall. A whole pumpkin hides all of that. The rind is orange and warty, so the outside keeps its character too.

Alongside the fruit I drew the flower and several lengths of stem with curling tendrils. The flower matters because it comes first, and the tendrils matter because they explain how the vine climbs and sprawls. The colours are orange, green and yellow, which makes this one of the more colourful plates among the vegetables. The hand-drawn digital illustration keeps the fruit, flower and vine as separate parts of one plant. Nothing is hidden behind a tidy round outline, and the viewer can see how the vine, the flower and the fruit connect.

Where does a pumpkin print work on a wall?

A pumpkin print suits a kitchen, a dining room, a farmhouse or any warm, autumnal interior. In a natural wood or warm-toned frame it feels domestic and seasonal. In a dark frame it reads as more formally botanical. In the photograph below, the pumpkin print stands in a black frame with a white mount, leaning on a dark shelf against wooden slats, between two black vases. The plate belongs to The Garden collection and the complete collection, and the botanical art prints page shows how it can be sized from small prints to over 150 cm (60 inches). The studio’s species cards include a short card for this plate.

Fine-art print →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a pumpkin and a squash?

There is no strict botanical difference. Both are fruits of Cucurbita species, and pumpkin is a common name for round, orange, hard-rinded types. In everyday use, pumpkin tends to mean a round, orange, hard-rinded fruit, and the dividing line varies by country.

Why is my pumpkin plant flowering but not setting fruit?

The first flowers are male and cannot set fruit. Female flowers, with a small swelling at the base, open later and need bees to pollinate them during a short morning window. Cold, rainy or cloudy weather reduces visits, so fruit set can be poor even on a healthy vine.

Are pumpkin flowers edible?

Yes. Both the male and female flowers of pumpkins and other squash are eaten, especially in Italian and Mexican cooking. They are picked when freshly open and cooked. Leave some female flowers on the vine if you want fruit, since each one is a potential pumpkin. Check the base of the flower: a female bloom has a small swelling there.

How old is the pumpkin as a crop?

It is among the oldest crops of the Americas. One genetic study dates the domestication of Cucurbita pepo in Mexico to about 10,000 years ago. Earlier archaeological dates for the first seeds and rinds are still debated, and estimates for different species vary.

How is this print made, and how does it reach me?

There are two formats. The digital download is a high-resolution file that you print yourself, at home or at a print shop; no physical item is shipped. The fine-art print is printed to order on archival paper or canvas, framed or unframed, in sizes from small prints to over 150 cm (60 inches), and delivered to your door.