Amorphophallus konjac

This is a cousin to "Perry from Gustavus". This is Barry.... as he also comes from a berry. Most of the smaller plants around his base are also voo doo's of one sort or other either more Amorphophallus konjac or Sauromatum venosum.    


Barry is over 6 feet tall.

Straight from the fine folks at Wikipedia and we quote:
"Corms can form many small cormlets called cormels, from the basal areas of the new growing corms, especially when the main growing point is damaged. They are used to propagate corm forming plants. Corms of a number of species of plants are replaced every year by the plant with growth of a new corm; this process starts after the shoot has developed fully expanded leaves. The new corm forms at the shoot base just above the old corm. As the new corm is growing, short stolons are produced that end with the newly growing small cormels. As the plants grow and flower, the old corm is used up and shrivels away. The new corm that replaces the old corm grows in size, especially after flowering is done.
The old corm produces the greatest number of cormels when it is close to the soil surface. The small cormels normally take one or two more years of growth before they are large enough to flower.

The gooey part on the bottom is the old corm.

The pieces at the bottom of the picture are apparently short stolons that are going to form more cormels at their ends. They break off when taking the big corm out of the ground. They're quite brittle.


All the pieces will happily make more "Barry-s"

Perry Made Berries!

This photo is taken directly from Dr. O'Brien's blog from Gustavus College. The link to see the rest of the blog post will follow.

This was an unexpected turn of events for Perry! They weren't sure that any pollination would take place because apparently the flowers aren't all that self fertile. But.... they had a surprise, and I'll let you read about it from Dr. O'Brien himself...
http://arboretum.blog.gustavus.edu/2010/09/13/perrys-berries-the-corpse-flowers-fabulous-fly-blown-fecundity/

Go back a few posts to see the Titan in bloom. It's the world's largest flower!

Comment??

Aeschynanthus radicans and Dragonfly

 Here is a very cold dragonfly warming up after a night of 45 degrees F.

Click on the picture to make it larger... the blog doesn't do the photo justice.... the insect is such a shiny, intricate thing!

It's coloring blends in well with the colors of the plant. The green of the body matches the leaves, the browns look like stems and the maroons match the "lipstick" flower colors... camouflage at it's finest.

Comments are welcome.

Sinnigia speciosa Hybrid

 Some of the Sinningias have been hybridized to such a great extent that they look little like their ancestors. This one is a really pretty double.

The magenta in the throat must attract something special to pollinate it!

Aeschynanthus marmoratus

 Here's a nice little Aeschynanthus that is usually grown for it's foliage rather than it's flowers. But, when you look at the blooms, Aeschynanthus marmoratus really has a pleasantly colorful flower.

It's got the chartreuse tubes with the bright orange edging with deep maroon patches that match the spotted undersides of the leaves... and pink anthers.

Anyway, the leaves are nicely marked with stripes, which lends this plant to sometimes referred to as a Zebra Basket Plant.

It's got a forgiving culture and prefers warmer, moist growing conditions.

Propagation by Cutting Tubers into Pieces

We are extremely fortunate to have guest author, Dale Martens, explain tuber division in Sinningias by cutting them into pieces. This is a method that most of us have not tried before!


Dividing Sinningia Tubers by Dale Martens

 

"What I'm about to say is from my own experiments and others may have had different experiences.  You have to make sure there's a couple of different growth areas on the sinningia tuber.  See the photo showing two areas of new sprouts on one tuber. Cut between those with a sharp knife. Some people let a callous form on the cut areas by leaving it out in the open on a shelf for a while, but I don't because often the little sprouts wilt terribly, particularly on micro or mini sinningias.  I plant them immediately with moist perlite on the wound area.

What surprises me is how large those micro-miniature sinningia tubers can get!  Often I see there are partial formations of tubers with sprouts, but checking them later, they haven't formed anything that can be separated except with a knife.  So when there is a large bump area with a sprout, I can remove that if what is removed will be at least the size of a pea, and placed it in very moist perlite in an enclosed container.  I put moist perlite around the base of the sprout, too.  The thing is, you need some of that old rough outer "skin" area in order for it to work.  I'm not sure what that's called, but if it were a potato I'd call it the peel.   The roots come out of the top layer or "skin".  So when you cut the tuber, make sure you get plenty of skin layer area on at least one side of the sprout, but it's best if there is skin surrounding the sprout.

In the past I've cut up a gigantic sinningia tuber to experiment. The roots came from the skin not from the starchy callous area. The last photo I included is a miniature sinningia and had no roots coming out of the starchy calloused area when I checked it a couple of months later.  The roots were coming out on the side with the original outer skin intact.

I happen to love to eat raw potatoes without putting salt on them, so I tasted a sinningia tuber.  Not tasty at all.  Not sweet either. I'm sure a lawyer would say I have to announce, "Don't try this at home" because you may have an allergic reaction!  I taste various gesneriad nectar quite a bit out of curiosity, but wasn't allowed to announce that in my AV Magazine Gesneri-Advice column years ago because it was suggested someone might have an allergic reaction...and I agreed to omit that.   Therefore, you're at your own peril eating tubers and tasting nectar!!  I understand some gesneriads are considered hallucinogenic and some are used for medicinal purposes, so do think twice before smoking, eating, or tasting any of them.  I happen to be allergic to a specific Nautilocalyx and broke out in blisters on my fingers.  A friend in Sweden alerted me since she gave me seeds from her plant.  She asked if I had any reaction to touching the plant and I said I got blisters.  She did, too.  I gave a friend Primulina tabacum and he got blisters."

BLOG NOTE: Don't eat your gesneriads. They are like mushrooms, really bad if you're not an expert.