Went Back To School ..........

[4.3LXJ]

For about a half hour anyway. CSUC has a really neat greenhouse that has some real gems botanically speaking including a Corpse Flower.

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu215/warriorsuspension/Cool%20Stuff/ceaff7c6-1de7-437e-9ac1-b1e6351188dc_zps5dc5d62d.jpg

I missed it in full bloom due to bad reporting in the local newspaper, but every tow or three years it blooms. Amazing for a potted plant.

I can't grow one outside or I would. But I do have over a dozen of these guys, which are kissing cousins

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu215/warriorsuspension/Cool%20Stuff/2011-05-11_14-14-14_565.jpg

These get about four feet tall for me, but can get up to six feet. They are all part of the genus Amorphophallus, which means misshapen penis. Some of them look quite human. Another one I have is a Dragons Tongue.

http://i649.photobucket.com/albums/uu215/warriorsuspension/Cool%20Stuff/2011-06-13_12-36-52_492.jpg

Lots of these too, this one getting about 28" long. All these guys are kind of stinky though, smelling for a couple of days like rotten meat. They use flies instead of bees as pollinators. I just tell unwanted visitors I will feed them to the flowers. :D

Other common Aroids include Calla Lilies and Peace Lilies, which are not really lilies at all :p

[LizardRunner]

Now that is some simply mind blowing flora right there. Wish those would grow here, but I fear the climate would not be so great for them. Doesn't mean I won't be giving it a trial though.:D

[4.3LXJ]

The Dragons Tongue is really tough. Grows almost anywhere. The smaller corpse flower will probably grow for you. Amorphophallus konjac. Should work too. Also grown in India as a food crop. The tubers have a different fiber in them used as potatoes and a dietary aid to loose weight and lower cholesterol.

[LizardRunner]

Nice, I'll let you know how they grow here in Arkansas once we get up on our new land.

[Brasscatz]

that's really neat. The Houston Museum of Natural Science had a corpse flower exhibit a year or so ago. It was on the news and everything about waiting for it to bloom. I got to see it before it bloomed, but that was about it.

[4.3LXJ]

They are spectacular. Largest flower in the world. Also probably the source of all those fake man eating flowers in the old Tarzan movies