May 30, 2002
Etc: Campus news and notes
FOUL FRAGRANCE: Sunshine and May rains are bringing forth the earthy fragrance of field and flower, but meanwhile, UW botanists are expecting a corpse flower to bloom this week, filling the air with a very different “fragrance” — one that drives flies, carrion beetles, sweat bees and their brethren wild.
An Amorphophallus titanum, also known as a corpse flower in its native Sumatra and elsewhere because of its foul odor, was expected to bloom midweek in the greenhouse operated by the Botany Department.
Find out the corpse flower’s status by calling the greenhouse at 206-543-0436. Weekdays while it’s blooming, the greenhouse will be open to UW faculty, staff and students and the general public, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. After hours the flower can still be glimpsed through the glass by going to the end of the greenhouse farthest from Kincaid.
The blossom may topple over in its first day — as has happened at a few other places — but could last up to four days, according to Doug Ewing, greenhouse manager. The smell usually peaks 12 hours after the plant blooms.
Fewer than 25 corpse flowers have ever been coaxed into blooming in the United States. This is the third corpse flower to bloom at the UW. The first was in the summer of 1999 and the second was in May 2001.
Ewing, who has cultivated the plants along with greenhouse plant technicians Paul Beeman and Jeanette Milne, says he’d like to have one bloom every year as part of the UW’s plant collection, one that allows UW students to see and work with plants that students at other institutions only get to view in textbooks.
CASE HONORS: The University has brought home some medals in the national competition sponsored by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). In the category of Research, Medicine and Science News Writing, four writers from the News and Information Office brought home a bronze. Sandra Hines, Vince Stricherz, Joel Schwarz and Rob Harrill were recognized for press releases written about physics-astronomy’s Tom Murphy and his plan to pin down the moon’s distance from Earth; electrical engineering’s Karl Böhringer and his work with pulsating “space hairs” that could help small satellites dock with their mother ships; bioengineering’s Henry Lai and Narendra Singh, who exploited the chemical properties of a wormwood derivative to target breast cancer cells; oceanography’s Deborah Kelley explaining the process forming vents in a hydrothermal vent field in the mid-Atlantic that is unlike any seen before; and psychology’s Geraldine Dawson and her findings that autistic 3- and 4-year-olds do not react to a picture of their mother but do react when they see a picture of a familiar toy.
Meanwhile in the category of Individual Development Publications, two publications submitted by Cheryl Nations, assistant director of publications, donor relations, Office of Development and Alumni Relations, also received bronzes. The Diversity Scholars Brochure was designed by Sarah Conradt, publications services; with feature writing by Antoinette Wills, associate director of development, Dean’s Office, Arts & Sciences; and Alicia Edgar, director of development, The Graduate School; and photography by UW Photography’s Kathy Sauber. The Report to Contributors was designed by Publications Services, with feature writing by Scott Driscoll and Sandy Marvinney, editor in the College of Engineering and feature photography by Jeff Zaruba.
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