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
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