Archive for July, 2010

Arb Sightings 7/28/10

An amazing 3.19 inches of rain have fallen here in the Linnaeus Arboretum since last Thursday 7/22. High temperatures coupled with high humidity levels have again pushed the heat index past 100 degrees Fahrenheit on several recent days, creating conditions for severe storms as both warmer and cooler fronts pushed through the state. Luckily for […]

Haute Couture Perry

Perry is traveling vicariously in some rarefied circles.  One of Perry’s enthusiastic new fans is Elizabeth Dietz, a fashion designer.  Elizabeth thought that Perry reminded her of the “Delphos” dress, made in 1907 by designer Mariano Fortuny.  I have to agree with Elizabeth’s description of the dress as “Perry-esque.”  Wow, Perry – who knew? The […]

Perry – News Story and Video IV

Hanna Schutte (summer Gustavus student intern) and Stacia Vogel (Assistant VP for Marketing and Communication), uploaded a fourth Perry video today.  I like it very much.  :) Click here for the news story (by Matt Thomas, Gustavus Media Relations Manager) and the video (imbedded in the story).  Statistics – wow.

Gustavus Birding Big Day 2010 Species List

On May 15, 2010, sixty-three Gusties went birding. Many of these adventurers were located right here in Minnesota, but others were spread out throughout the country and still others were situated on different continents. Wherever they were, they compiled a list of the birds they saw on the first annual Gustavus Birding Big Day. A […]

Snap! Crash! Perry Succumbs…

Perry the Corpse Flower’s spadix, gloriously stiff though it was during the past few weeks, lost turgor in an irreversible manner this afternoon.  Perry’s appendage had been steadily wilting, and Dan R and I were set to make another photo in the Perry Measuring Stick series to document the steadily increasing spadicial curvature. A conversation […]

The Leaning Tower of Perry

Perry the Corpse Flower had a great run Friday and this weekend.  Beautiful weather was constant during the daylight hours of the three days (and we had exciting weather for a while after Perry’s night-time peak – spectacular lightning on the way back home from an encounter with Perry at her/his maximum glory, followed by […]

Perry’s Zenith

Well, it’s been really busy here for the past couple of days, with little time to catch up on the blog.  However, one more official day (Sunday) of the Perry Lollapalooza is still to come, and more posts are in waiting and still to materialize.  This is a short post on an important milestone in […]

Perry the Corpse Flower is Opening!

Perry was ecstatic about an extended visit from her/his dear friend and ardent admirer Emily Pelton (Gustavus 2007) today.  Emily was heavily involved with the Perry event in May 2007, and is now a volunteer for Perry II, along with graduate study for her chemistry Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota.  (See Emily in the […]

Corpse Flower Update – Not Thursday?

My last looks at Perry, both in person this afternoon at about 5:30 and via webcam up until a few minutes ago, tend to make me think that Perry will not open on the 21st (Thursday), though I could be wrong (that sometimes happens…).  Opening might begin on Thursday… Friday?  Saturday?  Keep an eye on […]

Perry the Corpse Flower – Then and Now

Here’s a brief comparison of Perry’s inflorescence at similar stages of growth in May 2007 and now, complete with scale objects.  The human scale from May 2007 is Alex Burum, now probably the second most famous Amorphophallus titanum scale object of all time (first place goes to Hugo de Vries – see below).  The current […]