Thanks, yes I have. The chief superintendant of Police (forget his exact title, but he's high up in the service) actually lives very nearby and I've already asked him & he has promised to ask around for me. But the local news angle is a very good idea & one which hadn't occurred to me. "Local nutter with monster sized heat producing plant" - could be an interesting angle for any local paper to persue I'm sure. I'll email them today. Perhaps with a link to this forum... ? Thinking about it, how ideal it would be if the piece carried a plea for the loan of a thermal imaging system.... I like it.
Excellent! I hope I didn't go on too much about heat/IR? It's often tricky to know at what level to offer an explanation as on the one hand you don't want to bore or insult someone by "teaching them to suck eggs" (I think is the expression) but on the other hand you also don't want to leave them in the dark. Anyway I guess, if anyone finds it too long & boring they can always skip over the post. I'm sat now attempting to draft a letter to the local paper. I'm finding composing this to be surprisingly harder than I expected.
Steve, are these people on the http://www.aroid.org/ list? As I would dearly love to follow this research as it evolves. Could you please post news from your colleagues as & when you get it?
Thanks. - and Damn! as my previous posting cross posted with you, I hate when that happens. I believe lots of insects are IR sensitive/aware. Moths fluttering around a lightbulb, those nasty midgies which bite at night etc., are two examples I can think of? So I would be surprised if plants didn't also manipulate this resource which is available to them?
"don't want to bore or insult someone by "teaching them to suck eggs" Chris some of us are still learning to suck eggs. So yours and Photopros explanations are being read by mere beginners. That is a wider audience. So if you have time then please elaborate. This after all is a resource. Liz
Hi Steve, that's beautiful! Thanks for posting that up - does it produce a nice scent as well? It would be interesting to view that with a thermal imaging camera. Is there anyone near you that you could ask? I wonder if the red spathe helps or hinders the IR? Either way I'd love to look at that with an IR camera. I've been in contact with Dr Marc Gibernau. He's invited me to have a chat with him at Kew next week. He's working there all next week in the Herbarium so we've arranged to meet up for lunch on Monday. Afterwards, in the afternoon, he's doing a talk on "Aroid pollination: Floral characters, thermogenesis and odours" which I'm going to. I'm greatly looking forward to meeting him & learning a lot more. I had one more spathe open a few days ago & I took some measurements. This time, the whole of the spadix was measuring 30 centigrade from when I started. I shall have to check the remaining three spathes to see if they behave the same. 2pm Spadix 30C ambient 20C - overall 3pm Spadix 30C ambient 20C - overall 4pm Spadix 30C ambient 20C - overall 5pm Spadix 33C ambient 20C - center 6pm Spadix 33C ambient 20C - center 7pm Spadix 36C ambient 20C - starting to smell nice, center 36. 8pm Spadix 37C ambient 20C - beautifully smelling, filling conservatory with scent. 9pm Spadix 41C ambient 20C - tip of spadix at 37, center 41C. Still producing scent. 10pm Spadix 39C ambient 20C - still producing scent. 11pm Spadix 29C ambient 20C - no noticeable scent being given off. (Touched spadix & no scent on fingers) What pleased me was that the day before, I noticed the spathe had swollen slightly and had slightly 'cracked open' Then, the following day it started to open. I hope I should now be able to tell the day before the next spathes are due to open which gives me a bit of an early warning! The three spathes which have flowered, are now shut. What happens next with them? Are the flowers produced annually now it's mature?
Hi Steve, - don't take a chance with the chair - I'm sure it won't float! ;) I've taken the liberty of manipulating your image a little in photoshop (attached) by adjusting the levels slightly in order to boost the contrast a little. I don't know if this makes the female flowers any more visible as I'm not certain what I should be looking for?
Look forward to seeing those pictures! :) I'm also curious if the scent becomes more noticeable further on into the evening? Mine reached a plateau (according to my nose) from around 8pm through to 10pm or so & smelt utterly divine. Also curious to hear if you think the Spadix becomes hotter as the evening progresses?
That's really interesting - are ants the main pollinator? or is it another insect? If it's another insect, I'd wonder what's piqued the ants curiosity then and are they subsequently getting anything out of there efforts? Could they (perhaps) also act as pollinators or be doing something else? Steve, are there any other spathes on this plant? Maybe you could do a timelapse as it opened up? That would be really cool to see!!!
Now, I could be totally mistaken but that really looks like the Spadix is actually oozing pheremone. How very odd.
