OE a ie Out of the Spotlight A look at the people behind the scenes by Aphra Hughes Imagine a warm, sunny place where papayas, coffee, and mangoes grow. A place where bougainvilleas are covered in flowers and a pas- sionflower climbs the walls. Do you think you could get there? Stop worrying about the airfare, friends. You can get there by taking the stairs. UNBC’s greenhouse is on the fourth floor of the lab building, opposite the washrooms, and today | want to tell you about the plants in it and the people who care for them. The papaya tree is twenty feet tall and sits in one corner of the greenhouse. Since twenty- foot trees are hard to move around, the greenhouse workers hope to grow dwarf papayas in the future. The bougainvilleas were donated by Hugues Massicotte. The passionflower is growing up the only wall of the green- house that isn’t glass. The coffee trees are still just seedlings. They were started in December with unroasted coffee beans from, Dig this, a gardening store on Granville Island. Don’t expect home- grown coffee in the cafeteria: these four-month old seedlings still only have one set of leaves each. The beans were picked up by John Orlowsky, one of the two greenhouse workers. He has a BSc in horticulture from Oregon State and is a former greenhouse manager at the US Department of Agriculture. When he and his wife, Forestry professor Kathy Lewis,came up here, he actually started at UNBC aS a power engineer. He says this wasn’t a radical career shift as greenhouses need heating, heating needs repairs, and greenhouse managers learn how to fix heating. When the green- house opened, he returned to his roots! His work partner is Steven Storch, who went to Simon Fraser. He took a BSc in Biology and Environmental Toxicology, and then spent 10 years at BC Research. He was at the Forest Research Company at UBC when he applied for the job here. Steve says one of his friends warned him: “Go up there, and in six months you'll be sitting on the couch, listening to country music, with your dog by your side and your shotgun in your hand, ready to blow your brains out from misery.” So far, Steve has not acquired either the dog or the shotgun, although he does have one Rankins CD ... Steve's interests are main- ly plant physiology, although he started some microbial pathology, mostly in rhizos- pheres (roots). The greenhouse has several collections. One is commer- cial crops, which includes the coffee, cassava, and flax. It also has a group of touch- sensitive plants, mainly Glory Bush, (Tibouschina semide- candra), and mimosa. There are some mosses, including club moss and_ liverwort (Marchantia). There is John’s prized collection of “stinky plants”. These are plants that attract insects to fertilize them by smelling like decay- ing meat. The highlight of the collection is the carrion flower, Stapelia. John announced his hopes of acquiring the ultimate stinky plant, Amorphphallus Titanum, a plant which pro- duces a six foot spike with the odor of carrion. John’s boss, lab manager Peter McEwen, informed him that if he did, he and his stinky plant would be out in the snow! The greenhouse also has carnivorous plants, including pitcher plants (Nepenthe) and Venus Flytrap. They had just been fed when | visited, so | could see a mealworm in every pitcher of the pitcher plants, and one mealworm was still wriggling. John showed me with tweezers how the Venus Flytrap snaps shut on its prey, normally insects. Each flytrap has a set number of snaps, after which it dies, so you. don't want to touch them too often. John and Steve look after the plants in the lab building, but the lawns and the plants in other buildings are cared for by a contractor named Roy. It seems that one of the plants under Roy’s jurisdic- tion was infested with aphids, an insect pest. John and Steve didn’t tell him: they just went down and harvested the aphids to feed their Venus Flytraps with! They were dis- appointed when Roy noticed the aphids and sprayed the plant. John and Steve have a wide range of responsibilities. As well as the greenhouse, they have plant growth chambers in the basement of the lab building and terrariums in the hallway. They are also in (continued on page 14) Go and find a game- it will be called Xenogears- it will change your life. Taurus You are bullheaded and stub- born, leading to nasty run-ins with bottles of Pepto-bismol. Gemini You two faced floor flushing backstabbing, neerdowell! . Cancer Your over sensitive nature implies that you should shave that cat you stole. It will make you feel less guilty. Leo People enjoy your company, but only when its returns are beneficial to them. By the way, Bathe! Virgo It's time to take the inititive and take responsibility from others. You should be responsible for your own cor- ruption now. Libra Quit being stupid. People don’t like it. And no, you’re not cool and neither are your raver friends. thppt! Scorpio orem Letting others watch while you have sex will have unforeseen consequences. But hey, what's family for? Ruff! Sagittarius Standing around, letting cats pee on you has made your socks smell like your bed- room. You too should shave your cat. Capricorn Blonde hair and blue eyes won't help this time. They know where you live and there is more of them than you. Aquarius With an arrogant bearing to rival even that of John Travolta, you will conquer the known world and make everyone your sex piggies. Pisces For the love of Norman Rockwell and the Lettermans, stop whining! If you were born April 9. Your enthusiasm exhausts those around you; stop humping their legs. Overcoming struggles will be effortless you lazy bugger. Your critical nature and orga- nizational skills piss me off.