-----Original Message-----From: Petra Schmidt
[mailto:petra@plantdelights.com]Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002
4:12 PMTo: Multiple recipients of list AROID-LSubject:
Re: Pretty Fingers
Hey Tom...I remember when I first came to work
for you, someone told me that your fingers looked that way from years of
working with aroid seeds/berries without wearing gloves to protect your
hands...I didn't learn the real story until later...but I did wear gloves when
working with aroid fruits!
love,
Petra
----- Original Message -----
From:
Tom
Croat
To: Multiple recipients of list AROID-L
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002 3:40
PM
Subject: RE: An afternoon in St.
Louis
Dear Jason: It was nice to meet you and I hope
that you succeed in getting in to Washington University but I just wanted to
set the record straight. What you thought was fungus on my middle
finger is in fact something quite the contrary. I might as well
explain it. If you had looked closely you might have noticed that all
of the fingers on my left hand are similarly affected (though the plastic
surgeon did not do such a good job with the middle finger). When I was
a graduate student I was collecting plants in a VW bug. Intent on
finding all the Solidago I could find (I was doing work on this group for my
Ph.D. thesis at the University of Kansas)I inadvertently drove off the
road. The car rolled three times, throwing me out somewhere through
this process, then landing on top of me. I got a good blow to the head
so remember nothing of this but the emergency workers found me sitting in my
car (now back on its wheels) with severe burns which conformed well to the
fins which cool the motor, so they concluded that I had been under the car
when I got burned. Anyway, my plastic surgeon said that I should come
back to have my fingers "prettied up", but I just did not see the point in
doing this.
Tom
-----Original Message----- From:
StellrJ@aol.com [mailto:StellrJ@aol.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002 9:45 AM To: Multiple recipients of list AROID-L Subject: An afternoon in St. Louis
Hi,
This weekend past, I was in St. Louis, to interview with
Wash U faculty about getting into their Ph.D. program. I met with Dr.
Croat at MoBot (who appeared to have a fungal infection in the middle finger
of his left hand), and we discussed my interests relative to his. I
also got to see the research greenhouses at MoBot, particularly Dr. Croat's
aroids. The Wall (of climbing aroids) was very impressive. I was
particularly intriued by his collection of Stenospermation -- more so after
he said that almost nothing is known of this genus, either its systematics
or its ecology.
I also saw some of the more public parts of MoBot, including
the Climatron. As one who has traveled in the tropics, I can say the
Climatron is very well done for its purpose; I almost felt I was really in
the tropics again. The heat and humidity filled my whole body with a
healthy feeling, in contrast to the faint cold/allergy feeling I had
outside.
The next day, I went to the St. Louis Zoo. Inside the
Primate House was an attractive garden including a number of aroid species,
with a species of birds-nest Anthurium in flower, and some nice specimens of
the "Kris Plant" Alocasia.
I hope to go back to school come fall, and Wash U is
definitely high on my preferences list.
Jason Hernandez Naturalist-at-Large
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