I have avoided putting many of these on my posts. Just the Puntai Panjang beach video with garbage on the beach. I put these here so you can get an idea of what I am seeing and why meeting Burmansyah and his family was a big deal . Of course, this is not EVERYWHERE, but there is a lot. They do not really know what to do with the trash, so they put it where they can find a place.
Sometimes–even at home–we find these small nuggets of hope, where people are doing great things. This is Burmansyah–a farmer. His family has been working to save the Titan arum flower (corpse flower) for nearly 23 years. Great story. He started planting the corpse flower in his yard (by the way they smell like a rotting corpse so corpse flower for common name), because he was worried 20+ years ago the flower would be extinct if he did not do something. His neighbor kept spraying them with pesticide and killing them. So he moved them to another part of his yard. When it finally bloomed (which can take many years), his neighbor complained about the smell and killed it. This is when he decided to start a conservation center owned and operated by his family (no government assistance)–Taman Konservasi Puspa Langka in Kepahiang. They run on donations from visitors and some money from the electricity company. This is a video of me checking this one off my bucket list–Seeing it for the First Time Watch the video to see how tall it is–taller than me!!
Below are photos of the Corpse Flower. The flower has 2 stages–vegetative and flowering. It is related to the grasses (monocot). The root is like a potato (tuber) and they have seeds. I wish you could feel the outside–kind of feels like thin paper. I tried to put the plant pictures in order based on their growth cycle. I asked Burmansyah to explain his work there and how the flower grows. Deni helped with translating, but not sure this really makes sense. Explanation of the Corpse Flower Conservation Center and Life Cycle
Below is a another type of Arum flower. This one does not smell. One of the professors I am working with is researching this flower. These are his plants growing on campus. The top part is the male (yellow) and bottom white parts are the female. The open at different times so they cannot self-pollinate. I thought it looked like an ice cream cone. Hard to believe how beautiful they are. They are VERY difficult to grow.
Just a few more pictures of the plants at the Taman Konservasi Puspa Langka in Kepahiang. A fern much taller than me–largest fern in the world called the Tree Fern and pitcher plant. BEAUTIFUL!!!!
On the way home from the conservation center. My driver Ujang stopped to help me buy mangosteen. They are so good.
One response to “December 19–Hope Springs Eternal from the Smell of a Corpse”
They are interesting