Pretty (?) picture: Aristolochia gigantea

I had planned to do an orchid post today, but it got really complicated, and took off on several tangents: the meaning of the word "natural," hybridization, my best guess as to the identity of the dye Silver Vase is injecting into their orchids to turn them into "Blue Mystiques," whether or not Megan Fox is hot, and what the world's real oldest profession is (hint: not prostitution). And by the time I'd digressed in all those different directions, I'd kind of forgotten what my original point was, or whether I had a point at all. And it didn't really go with the intended orchid pictures (Schomburgkia undulata x Sophrolaeliocattleya Rojo).

So the previously-scheduled orchid post is delayed until . . . let's say Thursday. Or whenever I figure out what my point is.

Meanwhile, the husband and I went in to Iowa City yesterday. I stopped at the ex-job and saw this:


I've blogged about this plant before, but the flower in the previous Aristolochia post hadn't opened fully yet. This is better.

I'm particularly interested in the irregular, fractal-like coloration here. I'd love to know how the plant does that.

Walkaway: Aristolochia gigantea

Still trying to get the list together for the plants I intend to sell or trade (which is going to take a while longer; there are many pictures, and I suspect I'm including too much information about the plants in question but I'm sort of paranoid about sending one to somebody and then having them not like it, or having it be not what they were expecting, and then feeling like I should do something to fix that -- except that by the time it reaches that point it's sort of too late to fix, so I'm inclined to share everything I know about the plant in question in hopes of forestalling this kind of awkwardness. Except that then I realize that I'm dumping tons of information on the readers, most of whom will find it irrelevant and tedious, so I delete most of it, only to succumb to the fear that I've omitted important details, so I add it all back in again. Which is why it's taking a long time.), but figured I should still post something today, so why not another plant I didn't buy from the ex-job?


It's at least a plant I'd never seen before; I'd barely even heard of it. (I think I've seen it on a couple other blogs, but it's not something people typically try to grow, particularly not as a houseplant.)

Younger Former Coworker said it had an unpleasant smell, but either I couldn't smell anything, or I forgot to check. (It could be that Younger Former Coworker makes up fragrance-related things to tell me about, so I'll question my own perceptions.) It certainly has the I'm-pretending-to-be-a-dead-animal look to it.


Younger Former Coworker also referred to the plant as "the nut-sack plant." She spends a lot of time around livestock.

I'm a little suspicious of the ID here: Aristolochia gigantea was the name on the tag, but the A. gigantea results from Google are the wrong color and size. It may be some other Aristolochia. It also wasn't completely opened-up yet, so the resemblance might be better now.