Archive for 2011

Gargantuan Leaf Leaps for the Sun

Are You Ready for Some Chlorophyll?!!?  Perry the Corpse Flower (Amorphophallus titanum) has exceeded all expectations with his/her leaf, and is producing a shimmering wave of deja vu within the greenhouse, as shown in the photo (click the thumbnail image for a full view).  The student scale objects are Tran Tuan (Gustavus ’13) on October […]

Chlorophyllous Antenna Begins Reception

Perry the Corpse Flower’s leaf has begun to unfurl!  The massive leaf shoot, growing by many inches per day for the past few weeks, has begun to open its leaflets to the sun.  What follows will be Perry’s gulping of light to feed the massive corm that lies within the pot, all to power yet […]

Titanic Sprout Shoots Skyward

Perry the Corpse Flower (Amorphophallus titanum) continues to grow his/her solar antenna at an astonishing rate, as shown in the accompanying photographs – click on the thumbnails for the full photos.  The photos include Tran Tuan (Gustavus ’13, current Perry student scale object), Anthony Cesnik (Gustavus ’12, returning scale object), and Alex Burum (Gustavus ’07, […]

An Exquisite Corpse Flower…Leaf

Perry the Corpse Flower’s leaf continues to grow as an increasingly astonishing rate.  The exquisite sculptural beauty of the growing leaf is surreal, giving rise to the title of today’s blog post. On Monday afternoon, Tuan and I measured the height of the leaf shoot at 61 inches.  On Wednesday afternoon it was 74 inches […]

Arb Sightings 8/5/11

A hot, humid start to the beginning of the week has transitioned into slightly cooler but drier days. Whereas dew points had been in the 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit range, they are now in the more comfortable 60’s range, meaning our bodies don’t sweat as easily when the outdoor temperature is in the 80’s. After a […]

Leaping Leaf – Perry the Corpse Flower Surges Again

The cycle is well under way – Perry the Corpse Flower (Amorphophallus titanum) is once again growing a titanic leaf.  I wrote about the awakening last month, and the photo in this post introduces a new face on the blog, Tran Tuan, the latest Gustavus student Perry scale object in what is becoming a substantial […]

A Towering Tiny Titanic Forest

I posted in June on germination of seeds of Perry the Corpse Flower (Amorphophallus titanum).  Further germination has occurred, and the last count of seedlings from the tray pictured is 59 (and there are more in the set of seeds being tended by Philip).  The seedlings have been outside in my back yard for about […]

Arb Sightings 7/27/11

High temperatures in the 80’s with lower humidity levels have amounted to a week of rather comfortable weather for those of us in southern Minnesota. A couple early mornings of rain (today and last Saturday) amounted to a cumulative total of just under an inch of rain here in St. Peter, but otherwise there has […]

Arb Sightings 7/20/11

Anyone who has stepped outside in the past three days in southern Minnesota knows how intensely uncomfortable the heat indexes (heat + humidity, what it actually feels like to us) have been, although some might not realize that they are historically uncomfortable as well; yesterday, many of us in the southern half of the state […]

Arb Sightings 7/13/11

A stormy and rainy start to the week (dropping near one inch of rain in St. Peter) has given way to a midweek cool down, as today high temperatures are comfortably in the 70’s accompanied by relatively low humidity levels here in southern Minnesota. But all this is about to change as a warm front […]