Re: [Aroid-l] An Amorphophallus gigas blooms in California

From: bonaventure at optonline.net on 2009.05.24 at 10:58:47 Hi Bill.   From what I read and seen of bisexual aroid inflorescences, firt the female flowers at the bottom portion of the spadix are receptive for a day or several days. Then pollinated or not, they "shut down". Whether the smell remains afterwards or not I'm not sure, but then the male flowers, consisting of anthers only, near the middle of the spadix ripen. Smaller inflorescences on weaker plants may be all male only.   At this point you don't have to pluck or tweeze or disect off ect. Just as the spathe starts to fade, in the cup at its very bottom, loose pollen will collect. You can cut some of the spathe away to be able to brush it out into an envelope, or tip the plant onto its side and tap it out through the slit in the spathe if possible.   If you have anothe amorph' just starting its bloom (in female phase) you can tap some in along the spadix into the center. I produced a couple of hybrid Arisaemas this way. It would be great if you could get some titanum pollen just about now! I have right now only a paeoniifolius blooming that started its stench Thursday and albus(?) in the garden in bud. Pictures of both coming soon. I'll put the paen on the albus just for the hell of it, it has no pollen donor anyway. Offspring may be hardy here (central NJ) just like albus.   I have konjacs in the yard to bloom soon, but larger and more monstrous than that to shock my neighbors could be a possible giga-konjac????   Thanks,   Bonaventure Bonaventure     --Boundary_(ID_ZRo+6QXSszKJ1UY1uIMJZA)----===============8572774186144183670==

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