Whew! Yer gonna wanna vent that room!

Nice. They seem to like you!

Krstofer - must be nothin' goin' on at the passionflower forum??? HEE HEE! It's so good to see you posting here again. We've missed you and your plants!

"It's just konjac.....". Wow - I just got a konjac tuber from a very nice person and it's sitting on my counter in the kitchen - not doing anything yet. It's pretty small, but bigger than I thought I would get (thanks to my friend! you know who you are! and you still have a Ruffles coming).

What a lovely collection! I think I could stand the smell just to see them all up close and personal. Great job, K!

Susan

Congratulations Krstofer!
I counted 8 sprouting buds yet, but some are hidden behind other ones. Do I see one double-blooming tuber or is it an error of mine? Would be lucky to see two blooming tubers in my collection this year. Btw it was difficult to reach this thread. When choosing it directly I only reached a "Voodo-Advertise-Videoclip". And because I never touch or click at such clips and windows, I was not able to see your posting this way ( I close such windows striking Alt- and F4-keys together ). But via search I could reach you finally. Glad to watch your success!
Bye
hermann

I have a bunch of Konjac's in storage in my garage. I don't have to worry about them sprouting this early, do I? You have those in a warm room, correct?

Krstofer - I'm curious about how your seeds did if you planted them last year?

Susan

What species of plant is this? I know vey little about Aroids other than they are very cool plants!

It is Amorphophallus, Greenlarry. The genus is araceae. Collectively, all species are referred to as aroids, including amorphs, alocasias, colocasias, philodendrums, draceanas, arisaemas, arums, typhoniums, and on and on. Check out aroid.org.

Susan

Hi Larry,
it is Amorphophallus konjac, little sister ( brother ) of Titan Arum. Its inflorescence imitates a carrion with its odeur and colour.
Bye
hermann

Hi Susan,
nice to meet your answer right in time! Have a nice day, your sunday still lasts longer than mine!
Bye
hf

lol.. I had no idea a couple blooms would draw this much attention.. Wow.
Ok, on to the questions:

arumgrande~> One is just behind the other- Never seen a double bloom on a bulb.

macdaddy~> Yeah mine are in a warm room, however not all are blooming right now- I think it's more time of year than enviornmental temp.. But I really don't know.

susanlynne48~> I sold some & planted some.. First year tubers are about the size of a dime to nickel.

greenlarry~> Amorphophallus Konjac, formerly: A. rivieri v. konjac, Hydrosme rivieri. There is much on the species at the International Aroid Society site.

Okay, my tuber is about 3" by 2" - how old would you say it is? Couple years? Just curious.

Susan

Hey Green Larry,

If you like weird plants you should check out the link below. I am really into plants and I though I had seen everything but those flowers are just so weird. I love the Aristolochia cathcartii, it looks like a Nepenthes but is a flower and not a leaf. Scroll down to the Aristolochia gorgona. The Aristolochia ridicula is aptly named, it looks ridiculous.

I was on vacation in California visiting one of those parks when I came across some small flowered species of Aristolochia, I picked one of the flowers and broke it open and a ton of gnats flew out. Turns out all the flowers on the plant had gnats inside. It was trapping them. Must be part of the pollenation process. Probably lets them go after they are covered in pollen.

You should check out the carnivorous plant thread also. Those are always cool.

Here is a link that might be useful: Weird tropical flowers of the Dutchman Pipe family

3 feet by 2 feet? Then you have a titanium or gigas that's about to bloom. But if it's 3 inches by 2 inches.. I don't know, 3 or 4 years, Maybe, depending on it's growing situation- I've seen 'em hit that big in 2 and a half years if you fertilize the heck out of them..

She's correct 3'x2' would be in feet

All right, all right, already. So, I'm typing too fast. I can type 100 WPM. So, there! It is 3" x 2". I stand very well corrected.

Speaking of the aristolochea - fabulous photos. I have clematitis and ringens. A lot are tropical and cannot be grown by MOI. Love that gigantea.

Susan

It is Amorphophallus, Greenlarry. The genus is araceae
surely you mean the genus is Amorphophallus and the family is araceae.

Susan,

Geesh, some people just don't like being correct. You were right all along.

-Brian

Thanks, Bri.

Susan

HELLO ALL!
MY rule is if you dont know the age... about an inch per year... so as for a 3" diameter bulb is about 3 years old... a 4" is four years and 5" is five years etc. Konjac needs to be about 5 years old to bloom, so SusanI would say after two more years of growing you may have a bloomer. I have 3 A. Konjac, One a konjac Leo's song, and One a. Konjac "Nightstick" all blooming so far. The bigest Konjac is a 16 pounder... but it did loose some weight from the time I dug it up!
David
AKA
KonjacKing

Looks like with the exception of the smallest (who bloomed first) I was able to polinate everyone:

{{gwi:381198}}

Not bad huh? 8 this year- Last year two bloomed, a little tiny one & my biggest. Almost appears there's a maximum size these things can reach- As that one last year was pretty big, this year some others caught up, but last years fatty didn't put on much size.

They range from 2.5" to about 6" or so- Before they shrunk during blooming, that is:

{{gwi:381200}}

During "Stinky Time" they are receptive to pollen- and the antlers (are the male parts on these called "antlers"?) are bright white:

{{gwi:381201}}

The antlers will start to darken- get ready to catch the pollen:

{{gwi:381202}}

Within a couple hours to overnite- The antlers almost seem to pop:

{{gwi:381203}}

Sometimes you can get an asymetric drop- I wonder if some gas is released from the flower? You know, like when you want to ripen something put it in a paper bag with an apple or (I read somewhere) some acetylene gas.. (welding, you know?) This one was almost touching another flower where it popped..

{{gwi:381204}}

So I took the pollen from the first one & stuck it in the fridge, then used it on the next one to bloom. One bloomed every day or two, so my kitchen smelled like a rendering plant for about a week & a half. Pretty happy that's over.. I'd forget.. Go in there to get something to eat.. Open the door and nearly get knocked down by 'dead critter'.. Pretty good if you want to loose some weight, I guess.

Still have quite a pile who *didn't* decide to bloom.. Maybe yet, maybe not at all.

{{gwi:381205}}

Krstofer - absolutely fascinating read and photos! Wow! You must have a fantastic digital.

Susan

It's an Olympus Camedia E-20.. Picked it up ... 3 years ago when they were about $2K.. 'Cource now it's down to $750 or so... Sigh.

Aren't they called Anthers, not antlers?

D.

Ya! Yes they are!
Who says you never stop learning?

The upper parts of the spthes are all drooping & falling.. So I decided to cut them off.
Found out the upper upper is hollow- And the part where the male 'junk' is is made of a spongy materiel.
Weird.

{{gwi:381206}}

Didn't smell (much) till I cut it open.. Bad idea. Hands smell like that now. The spongy part is 'juicy' leaking a sticky clear viscous fluid.. That stuff doesn't stink tho. I think it's the hollow part of the spathe- Next year if I remember I'll chop that off before one blooms and see if it still smells. Hmmm...

Hi Krstofer,
was there any irritation of your skin when touching this sap and spongue? I only have read about "ever using gloves" when handling tubers f.e. cutting off rotting parts ( or preparing tubers to homemade Konnyaku ). Once I was pruning a too big Dieffenbachia I accidentally got some sap into one of my eyes and this hurt truly! Washing it out immediately helped, but a little burning of the mucosa(?) remained for the rest of the day.
Bye
hermann

Well, I don't think I got any on my hands- I know some dripped on my leg, but if there was any irritation I wouldn't know about it. (busted back at T 4/5, I can light a leg on fire and the 'burning steak smell' is the only clue)

I did taste it, and while rather astringent, there were no ill effects.

I guess folks eat these in the orient, right? Seems like a long wait for anything of a size to feed someone.. But maybe they taste really good or have some voodoo skillz or something.. I don't know. Always hear about bear sphincters & mountain lion urine having "powers".. Maybe these do too.

The amount of liquid released from that one cut was suprising- Like 6 or 7 drops worth. Didn't seem like there would be that much in there.