Congratulations, literature mentions

From: Steve Marak <samarak at arachne.uark.edu> on 1997.02.18 at 04:14:18(381) Congratulations to two Aroid-L'ers, Ron Gagliardo and Tony Avent, for mentions in the March 1997 Horticulture magazine. Ron's mention was not for aroids, but for his breeding effort toward an all-red Venus fly-trap (Dionaea muscipula 'Akai Ryu') - for those who may not know, Ron is very expert in the carnivorous plant field. The article on Tony had pictures of two aroids (Colocasia 'Black Magic' and Sauromatum venosum stems), and mentioned several more. Also of interest - I finally had a moment to browse the March 1997 Scientific American magazine and immediately noticed an article "Plants That Warm Themselves" (p. 104) by Roger S. Seymour, associate professor of zoology at the University of Adelaide in South Australia. He describes his fascination with plant thermogenesis beginning with an encounter with Philodendron selloum in 1972. Most of the plants mentioned in this article are aroids, and there are references to previous articles on this subject by this author and others. (All but one also studying aroids, the exception on Nelumbo nucifera, the Sacred Lotus.) The information on the metabolic pathways involved was new to me and very interesting. Steve +More -- Steve Marak -- samarak@arachne.uark.edu

From: SHoltz1036 at aol.com on 1997.02.19 at 03:59:19(386) Steve- What you mentioned about thermogenesis in plants is very interesting - I was talking to a man who helps maintain all of the plants in the Indiana University greenhouse and he had mentioned to me a funny thing that he noticed just recently - the Monstera (exact species unknown to me) that is about the size if a tree growing on other trees in the greenhouse apparently heated up so much that he felt it from a distance, actually measured the temperature, and he said it registered about 94F (is my memory correct here? I'll have to ask him again)! Stacy

From: Tom Croat <croat at mobot.org> on 1997.02.19 at 16:48:50(390) Dear Stacy: That is exciting news. I don't believe that thermogenesis is known in Monstera but I have always suspected that they were beetle pollinated and probably were thermogenic. Can you provide any additional details? +More Tom Croat, MO.Bot., St. Louis, MO. > > Steve- > What you mentioned about thermogenesis in plants is very interesting - I was > talking to a man who helps maintain all of the plants in the Indiana > University greenhouse and he had mentioned to me a funny thing that he > noticed just recently - the Monstera (exact species unknown to me) that is > about the size if a tree growing on other trees in the greenhouse apparently > heated up so much that he felt it from a distance, actually measured the > temperature, and he said it registered about 94F (is my memory correct here? > I'll have to ask him again)! > Stacy > >

From: SHoltz1036 at aol.com on 1997.02.23 at 02:03:30(418) Tom - I'll see what I can find out. I looked for the man in the greenhouse that I had talked to and missed him - I was going to tell him about that article in Scientific American but our biology library doesn't have it yet. So when I go again, I'll ask him about the specific plant and temperature. Stacy Holtzman

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