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Louis Ricciardiello is dwarfed by the spadex, the chimney-like center of one of his corpse flowers.
Horticulturist Louis Ricciardiello, D78, DG82, tends a noisome niche: the night-stalking corpse flower Uncommon By Julie Flaherty PhotoGRAPhY bY John SoAReS it’s hard to predict when an amorphophallus titanum will make its move. It could take a couple years; then again, it could be decades. But it is almost always— appropriately—at night. Then the single, giant bloom, which can tower over a fullgrown man, summons the energy it has stored from the sun over many months, unfurls its blood-red single petal and sends wafting the unmistakable stench of death. Some have likened the smell to dog vomit, mashed-up old fish or rotten sauerkraut. Louis Ricciardiello, D78, DG82, an oral surgeon in Gilford, N.H., who has raised hundreds of the so-called “corpse flowers,” shakes his head. “It smells like decaying flesh, like a dead animal,” he says with finality. The odor does have a purpose: to attract beetles, bees and other carrion-loving insects to pollinate the plant. The corpse flower’s motive is less gruesome than that of a Venus fly trap, despite its macabre name. Ricciardiello started raising these rare and spectacular flowers 10 years ago. He had been growing orchids since 1984 and was looking for something a little more adventuresome. In scanning horticulture books and websites, he read about the corpse flower, which grows wild only in Sumatra and was notorious for being hard to cultivate, even at botanical gardens. He was drawn to the flower’s weirdness. But more important, “I liked the challenge of seeing if I could make it grow,” says the shy but quick-to-smile 59-year-old. fall 2012 tufts dental medicine 15
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Page 9 and 10: the $2.10 the national average, per
Page 11 and 12: In addition to monitoring oral heal
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Page 15: usiNG electroNic health records for
Page 19: plant. Ten years ago, he read repea
Page 22 and 23: The conclusion was troubling. Swabb
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Page 26 and 27: surgery practice, but he briefly go
Page 28 and 29: The portion of Medicare that financ
Page 30 and 31: on campus dental school news Call t
Page 32 and 33: on campus A Life in Balance Dean Ro
Page 34 and 35: on campus BALANCE, continued from p
Page 36 and 37: on campus onekneeland In case you h
Page 38 and 39: on campus Grateful Graduates hateve
Page 40 and 41: on campus senior awards Members of
Page 42 and 43: on campus into the future What the
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Page 46 and 47: advancement From left, Mark Weinber
Page 48 and 49: alumni news The Perks of Me MeMbers
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Page 56 and 57: alumni news Richard Vachon, D77, D1
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CoNtINUINg EdUCAtIoN MARCH 1-2 Nitr
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School of Dental Medicine 136 Harri
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