I cut a hole in Stinky Phil’s spathe to reveal the flowers inside. The orange-red vase-like structures are female flowers. The brownish bumps above them are the male flowers and the smooth tissue above that is a sterile portion of the spadix, or flower stalk.
Including the reproductive parts of a plant is a crucial task in making herbarium specimens. These parts are often critical for identifying species correctly!
This video shows the first step in pressing the spadix or flower stalk from Stinky Phil.
Here I press a portion of the spadix with the actual flowers!
