From: "Alan Galloway" alan_galloway at bellsouth.net> on 2001.04.26 at 15:19:54(6277)
A few years back, a fellow Aroid-l-er shared some tubers of Helicodiceros
muscivorus
with the list. The tubers that I received were planted in the garden here
in Raleigh, NC,
USA (USDA Zone 7) and the plants have gotten larger and larger each year. A
few
days ago one plant reached its maturity by producing an inflorescence. I've
posted a
few pictures of this awesome flower on my web site at:
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~alan/plants/aroids/helicodiceros/
The flower is much larger than I expected and the odor so much worse than I
had
anticipated. Of all the aroids that have bloomed for me, this is the worst!
It even
outranks Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, which almost makes me hurl breakfast.
If you notice the latter pictures, where the spathe has been cut open, the
cream-colored
substance is the eggs of flies. Of all the aroid flowers that I have
photographed, many
have had flies and other insects crawling all over the 'naughty bits', but
this is the first where
the flies have actually laid their eggs.
Now, if I can tolerate the odor long enough to collect some pollen.
Alan
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