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Take Time To Smell the Flowers?

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  Quote red clay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Take Time To Smell the Flowers?
    Posted: 06-Feb-2007 at 06:31
Warm weather prompts Corpse Flower to bloom early

Mon Feb 5, 2:15 PM ET

Unseasonably warm weather may have tricked the world's smelliest plant into blooming in the middle of the northern hemisphere winter, botanists at the Eden Project where the native of Sumatra is housed, told Reuters.

The warmth of 2006 and mild winter to date have encouraged the Titan Arum or Corpse Flower into a phenomenal growth spurt and into flower -- an event that usually happens only once every six to nine years.

"The Titan, standing at 164 cms tall is now giving off a revolting stink," said curator Don Murray. "It is a cross between rotten cheese, dog poo and something dead."

"Tonight the flowers will be in full bloom -- as will the stench -- and that will last through Tuesday and Wednesday. But by Thursday it will have started to die back," he told Reuters from the project in Cornwall 220 miles southwest of London.

Murray said it was highly abnormal for the plant to flower in winter.

"Last year's unprecedented warm temperatures and high sunshine levels and the extremely mild winter we are currently experiencing have to be considered as a factor in this rare occurrence," he said.

The Corpse Flower is a native of central Sumatra and it uses its pungent attraction to entice the insects it needs for pollination.

The insects dive into the honeycomb-like stem that houses the flowers where they become trapped and covered in the plant's pollen.

After its brief but olfactorily memorable appearance the whole structure dies back, releasing the insects while the corm of the plant lying under the ground rests while it gathers the energy it will need to surge back into visible and pungent life.

                        
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  Quote Knights Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-Feb-2007 at 06:33
Red Clay, is this plant similar to or another name of the Rafflesia flower? They are very smelly too, and attract all the flies due to their particular pungency. 
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  Quote ulrich von hutten Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-Feb-2007 at 14:46
i can only smell the tracery on a frosted window !!!

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  Quote DocStaph Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06-Feb-2007 at 16:24
ahhh where can i get my hands on one please?
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  Quote red clay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-Feb-2007 at 06:32
Originally posted by Knights

Red Clay, is this plant similar to or another name of the Rafflesia flower? They are very smelly too, and attract all the flies due to their particular pungency. 
 
 
No, different genus.
R.cantleyi and R.kerrii are found in Peninsular Malaysia whereas R.arnoldii, R. pricei, R. keithii, R. tuan-mudae and R. tengku-adlinii in Sarawak and Sabah. R.kerrii, R. keithi, R. tuan-mudae and R. tengku-adlinii are endemic to Malaysia.
Description
  • The worlds largest flower weighing about 9 kg and almost 1 meter wide
  • Totally dependent on one particular vine called Tetrastigma (related to the grapevine)
  • The Rafflesia is a disembodied flower. A rootless, leafless and stemless parasite, it drains nourishment and gains physical support from its host vine. Its only body outside the flower consists of strands of fungus-like tissue that grow inside the Tetrastigma vine. It first manifests itself as a tiny bud on the vine's stem.
  • Over a period of 12 months, it swells to a cabbage-like head that bursts around midnight under the cover of a rainy night to reveal this startling, lurid-red flower. Beauty turns beastly in only a few days. The Rafflesia only flowers for 5 to 6 days, before the petals blacken and the flower withers. The "flowering beast" begins to smell like rotting meat, attracting blue bottle flies for pollination.
 
It uses the same strategy though.
"Arguing with someone who hates you or your ideas, is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter what move you make, your opponent will walk all over the board and scramble the pieces".
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  Quote Knights Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07-Feb-2007 at 06:41
Originally posted by red clay

 
No, different genus.
R.cantleyi and R.kerrii are found in Peninsular Malaysia whereas R.arnoldii, R. pricei, R. keithii, R. tuan-mudae and R. tengku-adlinii in Sarawak and Sabah. R.kerrii, R. keithi, R. tuan-mudae and R. tengku-adlinii are endemic to Malaysia.
Description
  • The worlds largest flower weighing about 9 kg and almost 1 meter wide
  • Totally dependent on one particular vine called Tetrastigma (related to the grapevine)
  • The Rafflesia is a disembodied flower. A rootless, leafless and stemless parasite, it drains nourishment and gains physical support from its host vine. Its only body outside the flower consists of strands of fungus-like tissue that grow inside the Tetrastigma vine. It first manifests itself as a tiny bud on the vine's stem.
  • Over a period of 12 months, it swells to a cabbage-like head that bursts around midnight under the cover of a rainy night to reveal this startling, lurid-red flower. Beauty turns beastly in only a few days. The Rafflesia only flowers for 5 to 6 days, before the petals blacken and the flower withers. The "flowering beast" begins to smell like rotting meat, attracting blue bottle flies for pollination.
 
It uses the same strategy though.

Thanks Red Clay. Have you ever actually smelt one of these kinds of flowers? I personally haven't smelt the real thing, but replicas of the smell, I've smelt them...quite...smelly!
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  Quote pekau Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Feb-2007 at 00:03
Flowers are not manly.LOL
 
Seriously, do we really have time for this? Furthermore, my homeland is not well known for preserving nature...Cry
     
   
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  Quote red clay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Feb-2007 at 21:36
Originally posted by pekau

Flowers are not manly.LOL
 
Seriously, do we really have time for this? Furthermore, my homeland is not well known for preserving nature...Cry
 
 
 
Stop by my classroom someday, and I'll let you put forth your hypothesis to some of the high school seniors I teach floral design to.Evil%20Smile             Big%20smile
 
 
 
As for having time for this,  You are posting in the Natural History Forum.
And your country's environmental policies and their impact would be considered an acceptable topic. 
 
 
"Arguing with someone who hates you or your ideas, is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter what move you make, your opponent will walk all over the board and scramble the pieces".
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  Quote pekau Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Feb-2007 at 21:52
Originally posted by red clay

Originally posted by pekau

Flowers are not manly.LOL
 
Seriously, do we really have time for this? Furthermore, my homeland is not well known for preserving nature...Cry
 
 
 
Stop by my classroom someday, and I'll let you put forth your hypothesis to some of the high school seniors I teach floral design to.Evil%20Smile             Big%20smile
 
 
 
As for having time for this,  You are posting in the Natural History Forum.
And your country's environmental policies and their impact would be considered an acceptable topic. 
 
 
 
I suspect a misunderstanding... I am saying I don't have enought time for nature... I just don't smell flowers...
     
   
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  Quote red clay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Feb-2007 at 22:02
Originally posted by pekau

Originally posted by red clay

Originally posted by pekau

Flowers are not manly.LOL
 
Seriously, do we really have time for this? Furthermore, my homeland is not well known for preserving nature...Cry
 
 
 
Stop by my classroom someday, and I'll let you put forth your hypothesis to some of the high school seniors I teach floral design to.Evil%20Smile             Big%20smile
 
 
 
As for having time for this,  You are posting in the Natural History Forum.
And your country's environmental policies and their impact would be considered an acceptable topic. 
 
 
 
I suspect a misunderstanding... I am saying I don't have enought time for nature... I just don't smell flowers...
 
 
You'd smell this one, wether you wanted to or not.LOL
 
 
                       
Rafflesia- Whose wonderful fragrence is a cross of rotting flesh and dog crap.   Ahhhh, Nature. Clap
 
 
     
"Arguing with someone who hates you or your ideas, is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter what move you make, your opponent will walk all over the board and scramble the pieces".
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  Quote pekau Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Feb-2007 at 22:04
Ironic, Rafflesia is my favorite flower...
     
   
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  Quote red clay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Feb-2007 at 22:15
Originally posted by pekau

Ironic, Rafflesia is my favorite flower...
 
 
Then you will like this also-
 
 
 
                                     
 
                   Meet Titan Arum, also known as the Corpse Flower, because that is what it smells like.
 
 


Edited by red clay - 12-Feb-2007 at 22:16
"Arguing with someone who hates you or your ideas, is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter what move you make, your opponent will walk all over the board and scramble the pieces".
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  Quote Ponce de Leon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Feb-2007 at 22:28
I enjoy flowers that create fruit
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  Quote red clay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12-Feb-2007 at 22:47
Originally posted by Ponce de Leon

I enjoy flowers that create fruit
 
 
 
Coming right up-
 
 
 
                                        
 

The durian tree (Durio zibethius) is native to moist equatorial forests in southeast Asia. It grows to 100 feet tall and produces heavy, thick-skinned, brownish-green, soccer-ball-size fruits covered with short, sharp spikes (duri is the Malaysian word for "thorn"). When ripe, these hedgehog-like fruits fall hard and fast to the groundand hikers are advised to get out the way.

Individual fruits are divided into five compartments, each containing a large brown seed covered by a sac of thick, creamy, yellow pulp with an aroma that's legendary. You could publish a small book full of analogies that have been used to try to pin down this odor. Some of the more common comparisons include overripe cheese, fermented onions, rotten fish, and unwashed socks. (The bad smell, of course, performs a very important function: It attracts jungle animals to the fruit to facilitate seed dispersal.)

Combine the unpleasant odor with the fruit's rich, almond-sweet flavor and puddinglike texture, and you have a culinary experience that's been described in one respected book on tropical cropswritten, wouldn't you know, by a Westerneras "French custard passed through a sewer." But it's an experience that many people in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia appreciate and crave.

          You didn't think you were going to suck me in that easily did you?
                                               Big%20smile
 


Edited by red clay - 12-Feb-2007 at 22:59
"Arguing with someone who hates you or your ideas, is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter what move you make, your opponent will walk all over the board and scramble the pieces".
Unknown.
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