Not quite stinking hot

Botanic Garden winter garden plant collection curator Stephen Bishop with the Amorphophallus...
Botanic Garden winter garden plant collection curator Stephen Bishop with the Amorphophallus titanum, or corpse flower, in one of Dunedin hotter workplaces. PHOTO: STEPHEN JAQUIERY
Stephen Bishop's workplace yesterday was not the best place to be on one of Dunedin's hottest days this summer.

While many were trying to stay out of the heat as the temperature sat at 29degC, the botanic garden plant collection curator was doing the opposite; working in the garden's glasshouse.

"We're cooking here in the heat,'' he said.

Mr Bishop was working to create a display for the garden's Amorphophallus titanum, or corpse flower, when the Otago Daily Times visited in a search for Dunedin's hottest workplace.

The display opens today, and Mr Bishop said it would become clear in the next two weeks whether the rare plant would produce a flower.

The flowers produce stenches similar to decaying flesh to entice carrion-eating beetles for pollination, and attract thousands of visitors when they bloom in public gardens.

While the tropical area of the glasshouse was a humid 30degC, the next door cacti wing was a sweltering 36.6degC.

Mr Bishop said he had been in the glasshouse most of the day.

``We've been keeping up the fluids where we can.''

He had received some relief when collecting plants from the alpine house, where the temperature is kept cool.

Standing under sprinklers was another method of cooling off.

 

 

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