DOI: 10.5061/dryad.tht76hf8m
title: Data from: Efficient pollination stinks: Corpse flowers use floral trapping and persistent emissions

description: Flowering corpse plants attract pollinating carrion insects through
 pungent, nocturnal odors. Female flowers primarily emit organosulfur,
 including ~12gS/hour as methanethiol with mixing ratios comparable to
 landfills; male emissions are smaller and more diverse. Floral emissions
 during blooming represent ~0.4% of plant biomass and change throughout the
 blooming sequence, consistent with floral trapping: insects remain with
 florets after initial attraction for subsequent release with pollen
 shedding the following night, preventing inbreeding and enhancing
 fertilization efficiency. Female flower plumes are resilient under
 pristine conditions, with relative floral composition changing minimally
 with nighttime oxidation and attracting insects for later release during
 the male bloom stage, which is less resilient. In polluted atmospheres,
 rapid oxidation may impact compound ratios and plume size, inhibiting
 pollination of these endangered plants.
description: Data was collected during a corpse flower bloom at Colorado State
 University (May 2024), via proton-transfer mass spectrometry and offline
 cartridge samles that were thermally desorbed onto a gas spectrometry mass
 spectrometer. Additional data includes greenhouse temperature, relative
 humidity, and carbon dioxide concentrations.
description: # Data from: Efficient pollination stinks: Corpse flowers use floral
 trapping and persistent emissions
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tht76hf8m](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tht76hf8m) ## Description of the data and file structure The following datasets include quantified results of biogenic emissions from the *Amorphophallus titanium*  (Titan arum or corpse plant) that bloomed in May 2024 at the CSU plant growth conservatory. Online measurements were collected via a Tofwerk PTR-MS, while offline samples were collected using cartridge samples that were analyzed by TD-GC/MS. These complementary data created a continuous profile of the bloom emissions from 25 May 2024 to 27 May 2024. Additional metadata from the greenhouse includes temperature, relative humidity, and carbon dioxide levels. ### Files and variables #### File: CorpseFlower-Aranet4_CSU-PGF_20240524_RA.ict **Description:** Data collected from the Colorado State University, The Plant Growth Facilities, during the Corpse flower bloom in May 2024. The Aranet4 Home sensor was located on a tripod within two meters of the corpse flower. Data collected leading up to the corpse flower bloom and a day after the peak bloom #### File: CorpseFlower-TD-GC-MS_CSU-PGF_20240525_RA.ict **Description:** Samples were collected on Tenax sorbent tubes for 1 - 3 hours at ~ 200mL/min. Samples were frozen until analysis with a Thermal desorption autosampler (TD, Markes, Ultra-xr) coupled to a Thermo-Scientific gas chromatograph (Trace 1310) triple quadruple mass spectrometer (TSQ 8000); identifications were made via analytical standards and NIST library matches. Compounds were quantified from linear regression analyses. #### File: CorpseFlower-PTR-MS_CSU-PGF_20240525_rA.ict **Description:** Instrument: PTR-MS, Vocus 2R CI-TOF, Tofwerk. Detection and quantification of resulting MH+ ions is accomplished with a time-of-flight mass analyzer with a resolution of 10000 FWHM m/dm. No sampling lines were used, and data were collected in a mass range of 0 - 400 Th. The electric field to number density ratio (E/N) was 140 Td. Instrument backgrounds were determined every three hours by measuring clean air for two minutes; the clean air was generated by a Vocus Zero Air Generator that utilizes a catalyst to combust hydrocarbons from ambient air. ## Code/software All data files are .ict and can be read by a Python reader. Files can be opened as a .txt file for readability. Python and Igor scripts are hosted at Zenodo and can be accessed by the provided GitHub link there. Zenodo DOI: [10.5281/zenodo.15388407](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15388407) ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * N/A Data was derived from the following sources: * N/A