IAS Aroid Quasi Forum

About Aroid-L
 This is a continuously updated archive of the Aroid-L mailing list in a forum format - not an actual Forum. If you want to post, you will still need to register for the Aroid-L mailing list and send your postings by e-mail for moderation in the normal way.

  TitanWatch 5/7/03 There's gold in them thar hills.
From: "Craig Allen" callen at fairchildgarden.org> on 2003.05.07 at 22:23:29(10208)
TitanWatch 5/7/03 There's gold in them thar hills...

This morning the Amorphophallus titanum going under the alias Audrey III, is looking a little less than spectacular. The spathe has completely closed around the spadix. The odor she was so famous for is no more than a faded memory, though there are occasional air currents with the smell of wilted vegetables combined aroma of dirty dog. The idea of aroma therapy has taken on a whole new meaning for me.

About noon I went out to check on the production of pollen on Audrey's spadix. There's gold in them thar hills... or folds. If you think I was rude to Audrey yesterday, you should have witnessed the abuse she was subjected to this afternoon. Sure enough there was pollen. Chris Mayhew, a conservatory volunteer, and I used my business cards to scrape fresh pollen from the male flowers. Looking down into the funnel we could see a lot more pollen already at the bottom. That stuff is worth more than gold to me so I figured a way to get most of it out. I attached a ? tsp. measuring spoon to the end of a piece of bamboo, and went fishing. It was just the right size. With my nifty tool I was able to double the amount of harvested pollen. All together I think we obtained about a tablespoon. More than anything it looks like grated hard boiled egg yolk. I will let you in on a little hint...

...don't eat it, it sure doesn't smell like egg yolk, unless it had been sitting in the sun for days!

I have been asked often if I am going to revise Mr. Stinky's expected opening date, in light of Audrey jumping the expected gun by 3 days. I will look over things tomorrow when I have had some rest.

TitanWatch update:

Audrey III still 73 inches, but soon down to 0

Mr. Stinky = 74" (passing up Audrey and still growing fast)

Craig M. Allen

+More
From: SongString at aol.com on 2003.05.08 at 03:43:32(10210)
Is it possible to freeze pollin for later use?

Just wondered.

nancy

+More
Note: this is a very old post, so no reply function is available.