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Got caught mistaking a corpse flower for a giant weed at the Denver Botanic Gardens
Two summers back I volunteered at the Denver Botanic Gardens and got assigned to help water the tropical greenhouse on a Sunday morning. I saw this huge wrinkly stalk in the corner with no leaves and figured some volunteer had let a weed go wild, so I grabbed my pruners and almost cut the whole thing down. My supervisor ran over yelling that it was a titan arum three days from blooming, and the thing had been growing for seven years just to flower once. She made me stand guard by it for the rest of my shift so no one else would mess with it. Now I always read the little plant tags before I touch anything, but I still wonder how many other volunteers have almost hacked up something rare. Has anyone here ever nearly killed a plant they were supposed to be taking care of?
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nathanj561mo ago
That bit about standing guard made me laugh. I did something close at a community garden years ago, grabbed a hoe to clear what looked like ragweed and my plot neighbor hollered at me. Turned out it was her prized bronze fennel she'd started from seed in March. After that I started carrying a roll of masking tape and a sharpie and flagging anything in my row I wasn't sure about, plus I check the tag before I pull. Sounds dumb but it saved me twice since then.
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