By Ken Shackel

The graph above clearly shows that Tabatha's temperature (red line) normally
follows the daily up and down pattern of air temperature (blue line), which is warming during the day and cooling at night.

As Tabatha gets closer to blooming, watch for her activity to reach a "fever pitch," when we should see the red line increasing to well above air temperature. A high temperature will make Tabatha's "perfume" (if that's what we can call it) smell stronger, and so will hopefully attract as many flies as possible for pollination.

Air relative humidity (upper black line) also shows a daily rhythm, with values close to 100 percent at night in the greenhouse. High humidity should allow Tabatha to reach as high a temperature as possible, so the biggest difference between Tabatha's temperature and the air temperature might just occur at night.

(UC Davis pomology professor Ken Shackel is monitoring Tabatha the Titan's vital signs to learn more about the corpse plant.)