The Kosmala Blog

It’s that time of year here in the Upper Midwest: Strawberry Season! Foxtail is rolling in these plump juicy wonders and I was out helping harvest on Wednesday. Yum!

When Margaret was on the farm the other day, one of the farmers commented that it would be great if their spinach grew like Margaret’s hair. While a Margaret Hair-Vegetable Hybrid could sound like a sure-fire money-maker, I think a certain amount of caution is warranted. After all, Margaret hair doesn’t just grow, it takes over.

If this sort of thing ever does happen, I am extremely worried since I am a vegetarian. I don’t expect that be looked on kindly by our new vegetable overlords.

Just my random $0.02 for the day.

Over the weekend, a rare flower bloomed at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. The titan arnum (Amorphophallus titanum or “giant misshapen penis”), also known as the “corpse flower,” is a rare flower native to Sumatra that has the largest unbranched inflorescence of any plant in the world.

It’s a peculiar plant as it very rarely blooms, and when it does bloom it usually only for 8 to 12 hours. The flower gives off a very putrid scent, like that of rotting meat (hence the nickname), in order to attract carrion beetles and flesh flies for pollination. And because the plant cannot self-pollinate, one male and one female have to bloom in quick succession in order for it reproduce.

Apparently it’s quite a feet to get one to bloom when bred in captivity. It’s more or less a random occurrence, but when the plant does bloom it’s quite magnificent due simply to its sheer size. It also seems to be the first ever corpse flower blooming in Minnesota.