There is a big event going on at the Conservatory right now. The Amorphophallus titanum (no, I didn't make that up) is blooming! The titan arum, or "corpse flower" is a tropical monocot that blooms very infrequently, and can get up to 10 feet tall! The conservatory has a few titan arums, and Ted is about to bloom any day now (the last one to bloom was Tabitha, and Timmy and Tammy are dormant right now). Ted the Titan is about 5 feet tall and when it opens it will smell like rotting meat, which is its adaptation to attract flies and beetles to pollinate it. There is a streaming webcam with sound that is a real hoot to watch. Tim, the director, and Ernesto, the curator of the Conservatory are there all the time, just waiting for Ted to bloom and talking to everyone who comes to see it. So it's really fun to watch the webcam because you can actually learn a lot about the plant.
1 comment:
Can I just say Holy Crap! I almost hard to believe it's real. Right there is the difference between science grad students and me. It's all about getting as close as you can get to the horrifying, poisonous bugs, the huge, deadly tornadoes that come in multiples. And the gigantic, stanky rotten-meat-smelling plants. (I actually do envy that kind of focused passion.)
The closeup of Ted is beautiful, too.
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