Ohio State’s second Titan Arum, Jesse, came and went in a flash—moving almost as fast as his namesake, the great Jesse Owens.

Jesse started to open around 3:30 on Friday, May 25; the Greenhouse opened to the public that evening and again the next day. But by early afternoon on the 26th, Jesse was fading fast. In the 16 hour-viewing window, more than 1200 people paid homage to this rare, spectacular bloom.

For Joan Leonard, Biological Sciences Greenhouse Coordinator, work is never done. If you have to stay until 1:20 in the morning to pollinate your Titan arum, you stay and do it. If you have to leave your house at 11:45 pm and drive to the Greenhouse to check on a rumor that someone looking at the camera thought it was blooming, well—you do it, even though you full-well know it isn’t. (And it wasn’t.)

Although Jesse’s glory has faded, his potential to give life to other Titans is just beginning—and the work in the greenhouse goes on and on.

“We stayed until 1:30 am on Saturday to do the pollination of Jesse—it had to be done at the right time,” Leonard said of the aftermath of Jesse’s blooming on Friday, May 25th late in the afternoon.

“Anyhow, one of my students, who I had in charge of the thermal camera, generously loaned by Facility Operations and Development’s Energy Services and Sustainability Office, stayed too and I let him cut in an access hole and pollinate as well—where else but OSU can we provide undergrad students with such a unique opportunity!! He is one of a handful of people to ever do anything like this.”

And there is little doubt that undergraduate student, Jordan Jenkins, is the ONLY undergraduate student on the planet to pollinate a Titan.

Jenkins, who also repotted the baby tuber that became Jesse, shares his memories of Jesse and his role in bringing it to life…

“When repotting the titan arum tuber, I really didn't think much about whether it was going to send a flower or leaf. I was really just curious about what the tuber looked like, and the measurements we took from it. When we saw that the tuber weighed 35 pounds there was some talk about it having enough stored energy to send up a flower.

“When its bud emerged a few weeks later, I did get pretty excited because I really wanted to see a flower develop from start to finish. I've seen a few leaves emerge while working here, but I was not around when Woody bloomed so I was curious about the elusive flower.

“As the weeks passed and the bud continued to grow we thought it very well could be a bloom, the bud was too fat and not quite as tall as a leaf bud that was emerging at about the same time.

“Coming into work on May 14th we all knew that it would be a flower because the spadix emerged from the cataphylls. This was very good news for me because I am finally going to see one of these flower.

“The wait from here on out was torture; I was quite impatient with Jesse. I wanted to see him bloom. Coming into work every day and seeing how much titan arum has grown since I last saw it, 4 to 5 inches in height, was hard to comprehend.

“After a week of waiting, when the titan started to bloom all I could think was that it was finally happening--I was not as outwardly excited as I thought I’d be--playing the waiting game with it wore me out.

“Being with the titan as it bloomed from beginning to end was great because we could finally share this beautiful specimen with the public.

“By far my favorite part of this ordeal was talking with the people who came to see Jesse. I love talking biology and science methods with people. You never know how those interactions can affect someone. I get satisfaction from knowing I may have increased someone’s knowledge about the natural world, and may have sparked a curiosity for that world that will stay with them through life.

“After everyone left and it was time to pollinate, I was quite shocked when Joan said she would allow me to pollinate the female flowers.

“This plant is Joan's baby; she’s been caring for it for about 10 years, so it was good to know she trusted me.

“I, however; did not have as much faith in myself. It was quite late, about 1:00 am, and I was exhausted from the busy evening, I kept thinking I was going to knock the inflorescence over as I was cutting into it.

“Manually pollinating Jesse was a fantastic experience! How many people can say they have pollinated Amorphophallus titanum? Not many, but that's not the point. Hopefully the pollen took, and Jesse will bear fruit that we can send to other institutions.”

Jenkins is a 4th year student graduating in December with degrees in biology and forestry, fisheries, and wildlife, who has worked at the greenhouse for just over 10 months. After graduation he plans on doing seasonal field work for fisheries or wildlife ecology projects for a couple years “to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my career, and then go back to school to get my masters and hopefully PhD.”