PERRY!

 PERRY IS BLOOMING!!!!!

Perry the Titan arum is blooming at Gustavus. The live webcam feed can be seen here.  http://gustavus.edu/biology/titanarum/  How awesome to be able to see the bloom of the plant that produces the world's largest flower right here within an hour of the Twin Cities?

Perry is a youngster at only age 17. Sprouted from a seed, the now approximately 200 pound Perry is blooming for the second time in about three years.

Titans either put up one single leaf a year or one single flower then followed by the single leaf. The dead material you can see displayed on the right side of the photo is Perry's SINGLE leaf from last year.

This is Perry's primary enthusiast. Dr. O'Brien of Gustavus. This isn't a short plant folks.


Leave comments at the bottom here, and remember to click on the link for the web feed.

Ahhh, The Sweet Smell of Spring!

This is the our harbinger of spring! When the voodoos are out you can soon find robins and spring peepers. (I made that up)













 This is the handsome maroon of the bloom.












 Here we have a look into it's secret nougat center. I'm still wondering if the whole thing is heating itself up like the Titan Arums do when they start to have their fragrance.

The Milwaukee Public Museum says this about the Titan Arum (which is a close cousin, I'm thinking that my voodoo is doing about the same things for the same reasons.)  The Milwaukee Public Museum: "Flower odor is strongest the first night after opening. Sulfur compounds, similar to those responsible for the smell of rotten eggs, give the flower its putrid odor. The smell (similar to rotting fish according to some) comes in waves and attracts carrion beetles and sweat bees in its native habitat. Since flowers are few and far between in the wild, the plant needs to disperse its odor to attract pollinators. It is able to do this by generating heat, up to about 10 °F above the surrounding air, which volatilizes the chemicals. The spathe closes after this first period trapping the pollinators within. When it opens the next day, the male flowers are shedding their pollen and the insects must crawl over the flowers picking up pollen on their way out. If fertilization occurs, numerous fruit the size of olives will develop over the next 6 months, turning bright red when ripe."


This is how it's gotta be for the next couple of days around here. Whew.....

Click on the photos to make them larger.

Perry's Old Age

Perry's fabulous inflorescence has almost completely collapsed. Soon the corm will send up a leaf... only one leaf.... that will probably be the biggest leaf in the entire state of Minnesota.

The links to the college of Gustavus have lots of further information about Perry; using an engine hoist to move the corm into another pot, the problems with finding a pot for a hundred pound corm.... taking mom to smell a "corpse flower" for Mother's Day and so much more!!! Check it out!

All about Perry! Enjoy. I hope they'll keep the web cams going when the leaf is growing.

Perry's Done Blooming

Perry's flowering is all but done! They cut a window into Perry to show what the flowers and pollen looked like... the first blown-up photo has the male parts of the flower on top, and the female parts lower down. The smaller photo shows the edge of the cut-out. The cut out portion of the spathe was quite thick and described like this: "So: the base of Perry’s spathe consists, in a conceptual manner, of an outer thin layer of tough celery, followed by a thick inner layer of slightly pliable styrofoam, and lined with a thin, hard, stiff waxy layer."












Now Perry has started to wither and collapse. The flowering is done, but then it is expected that the largest leaf (when fully grown) to be found in Minnesota will emerge. The college is planning to keep at least one web cam on Perry to watch the leaf emerge. This is cool stuff!!!

Perry's HOT!

Perry is now OPEN! What a fabulous flower! And Perry's internal temperature is hot, hot, hot!

The Gustavaus web site says: We thank the St. Peter, Minnesota Fire Department for the loan of an infrared imaging camera for tracking Perry’s surging thermal fervor. The images that are linked show the device in use, Perry’s infrared glow (with Paul and Brian Saulnier as thermal reference objects), and the ring of fire in the region of Perry’s spadix just above the upper limit of her/his female flowers.

OH BOY!! Perry is Opening!!!

Perry is opening up today!!!! Yay! You have to admit that is one good looking plant! The fine folks on the website say:

"It has been stated by an alarmingly large number of people that parts of Perry’s spathe look like lettuce. We have therefore decided to prohibit visitors from bringing bread, mayonnaise, or salad spinners into the Perry Room. Rabbits are also Lepus non grata."

Check out Perry and his live feed at the Gustavus site. Did you know that Perry is 14 years old this year? It's worth the time to see one of the world's most unusual plants. Scroll down for Perry and the two others that are also opening almost simultaneously.

Perry's Taller

Perry is even taller! Did you know that the plant heats up its internal temperature? Why, you ask??? The web site nicely explains what's going on.

In the dense jungles of Sumatra a small inflorescence that relies on aroma to attract pollinators would have a difficult time spreading that aroma and attracting pollinators. The bigger the inflorescence the more successful it will be in spreading the aroma and thereby attracting pollinators. A brilliant strategy for a stationary plant! Even better is that the plant actually uses energy reserves to warm itself up to temperatures comparable to human body temperature. The warmth allows the compounds in the odor to volatilize more easily. So in other words, the warmer the titan arum gets, the stinkier it gets. (Think about the aroma of fresh baked bread. It is especially fragrant when it is hot out of the oven.)

It can get to be 100 degrees F. Now that's a "cool" plant! Keep watching Perry as he unfolds.... Perry's web cam!

Perry's brother Ted

The University of California Davis' College of Biological Sciences has another "corpse flower" in bloom right now! Meet Ted. Ted is at the peak of bloom now. The link to see Ted and learn more about these flowers is also on the link in the past post that comes from Gustavus. Simply scroll down from the photo of Perry (it's the second selection down) and you'll get more information and links to other rare flowers like Ted.

Perry the Titan flower at Gustavus.

Meet Perry!!!

Ok, this is too good to be true for the real plant lover. Check this out from Gustavus College! Meet Perry!
This is in real-time and over 9 feet tall already.... there is more to go! (Or, should I say "grow"??)

Note the guy standing there is a regular size gentleman. This is one "good sized" plant! The blooms of it smell like road kill and attract all sorts of interesting pollinators. The plants come from Sumatra and are considered endangered.


Let's have some comments and participation with the blog! It's only fun if everyone joins in the action!!! Do you have any plant related materials to give us a link to? It doesn't have to be strictly about gesneriads.... some of these things are just more fun than can be contained in an ordinary posting! Plants that knock out the glass of your green house roof are meant to be shared!