Director of the Botanic Garden and Professor of Biological Sciences
Smith College
Lyman Conservatory, 15 College Lane
Northampton, MA 01063
email: mmarcotr@smith.edu
voice: 413-585-2741; fax: 413-585-2744
www.smith.edu/garden
www.science.smith.edu/~mmarcotr
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Art is the unceasing effort to compete with
the beauty of flowers and never succeeding."
Marc Chagall
>>> tony@plantdelights.com 06/24/04 01:13PM >>>
Ken:
Let me remind folks that amorphs are like people...some clones
of the same
species smell much worse than others. When you grow lots of the same
species from seed (plants), you'll see what I mean.
At 11:40 AM 6/24/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>I'm noted by friends and family for my keen sense of smell, but I
challenge
>anyone to say that konjac "isn't that bad" and truly mean it! I had a
6
>footer open the night before my cactus club's annual show/sale - it's
held
>in quite a large space (over 3500 sq ft in a "U" shape) - and
absolulely
>everyone was complaining for two full days how awful it smelled. Since
that
>was the second year in a row I stunk the place up I promised to time
it
>better next year...
>
>If Ron's konjac "isn't that bad" then he has a clone with a defective
>odor-emitter!
>
>A follow-up email described bulbifer - I had my very first bulbifer
bloom
>this year. It was a small tuber (and a small flower)that I'd imported
from
>India for the above sale. It bloomed at the far end of my house, over
50'
>from my bedroom door. I awoke to the smell of a gas leak - but I don't
have
>gas... I knew what it must have been and went to the room where it
was
>blooming. It didn't smell like gas up close, smelled much stronger
with a
>somewhat sweet overtone, but not at all pleasant. *However* it
smelled
>nowhere near as bad as konjac! By that evening the smell was mostly
gone.
>
>In the next couple of weeks I hope to experience A. titanum's stench
up
>close. The University of CT is 20 minutes from my house and I'm
friends with
>the greenhouse staff. Their first titanum bloom is due soon. The page
has
>been failing to load because of high traffic, but the address is
>(http://florawww.eeb.uconn.edu/Titanum/Titanum2004.html ). Try this
link as
>an alternate (http://www.news.uconn.edu/2004/jun2004/rel04065.htm).
>
>UConn also had 3 A. prainii bloom a while ago but while I was able to
get
>photos I missed the stink.
>
>-Ken Mosher
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From:
>To:
>Sent: Thursday, June 24, 2004 9:10 AM
>Subject: Re: [aroid-l] A. konjac questions
>
>
>> I agree that the odor isn't that bad. Several flowered this year
and we
>> hardly noticed them. It isn't a constant odor and, at least with
the
>clones I
>> have, you need to be quite close to smell them. Amorphophallus
>paeoniifolius is
>> another story. We had neighbors two houses down tracking down the
odor.
>
Tony Avent
Plant Delights Nursery @
Juniper Level Botanic Garden
9241 Sauls Road
Raleigh, NC 27603 USA
Minimum Winter Temps 0-5 F
Maximum Summer Temps 95-105F
USDA Hardiness Zone 7b
email tony@plantdelights.com
website http://www.plantdel.com
phone 919 772-4794
fax 919 772-4752
"I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...at least
three times" - Avent
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